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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

I do not accept those figures. I am not a fan of private finance initiatives, but they are a relatively small proportion of overall investment. The figures are in the Red Book; they are relatively small compared to overall debt, and indeed compared to capital spending. Current annual capital spending is about 1 per cent. of GDP, which takes us back to the levels of 1992. I am pleased that the Chancellor has announced a substantial increase in capital spending, which will go up to £60 billion in 2011-12. I accept that we cannot dramatically increase spending if we do not have the capacity to do so, so it is excellent that, under the Budget, there is to be a sustained increase in capital expenditure, which will rise from £43 billion in the current year to £60 billion in five years’ time. I hope that that will mean that we can start to catch up in the areas of investment that are of great concern to me. I mentioned transport and housing, and I shall first deal with housing. When I first became involved in politics, it was in local government. I was elected as a councillor for Birmingham city council in 1980. At the time, the housing investment programme was about £100 million a year—and that was at 1979-80 prices. Birmingham city has had a total of £80 million over the past two years for investment in new social housing, and that figure includes the housing associations. Investment in council housing stock is about £20 million. It does not take a financial genius to realise that although those figures sound large, the sum is only a minor proportion of the investment that was being made under the previous Labour Government. We are now seeing the effects of that; in Birmingham, thousands of council homes have been demolished. There used to be 150,000 council homes in Birmingham, many of which, particularly houses, have been lost as a result of the right to buy, so the majority of stock consists of the less popular apartments and flats. Only about 70,000 homes are left in council ownership, and there has been inadequate investment over the years to maintain them properly. However, investment is needed to meet the decent homes standard, so the response under the previous Labour council, which has continued under the so-called progressive alliance of Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors, was simply to knock down large numbers of houses. As a result, we have a dreadful housing problem in the city. In the past, we never used temporary or bed-and-breakfast accommodation, but now there are several hundred families in temporary accommodation. It takes two months to obtain a decision on homelessness, and even longer to secure permanent accommodation. Anyone living in unsatisfactory council housing—perhaps a family living in a flat that is not on the ground floor and does not have a garden, or someone with disabilities or suffering from ill health—has virtually no chance of being rehoused. I make regular inquiries on behalf of constituents with housing needs, and the council regularly sends me letters giving their position in the queue. Usually, they are well down in 200th or 300th place, and only one or two properties in that category become available every year. The market in social housing has seized up, and people are thought to be lucky if they have any accommodation at all and are not homeless. The use of the private sector is growing. Proper investment in council housing would save us money spent on housing benefit and subsidies for privately rented accommodation. It is particularly odious that former council properties are let back to councils at double or treble the council rent so that they can house homeless families. We have not come close to implementing the recommendations of the 2004 Barker review for an additional 17,000 social housing units a year. A further 9,000 units are needed to deal with the backlog of need, and I very much hope that the promised investment in social housing that we were led to expect in the comprehensive spending review will be fulfilled. In announcing the increase in capital spending, the Chancellor has provided the money.