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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I shall make some progress and give way to the hon. Lady shortly, even though she has only just joined us for a cameo role and has not been in the Chamber throughout the proceedings. I shall make a little more progress with my historical tour de force if the House will permit me. As the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) said, 85,000 people are in temporary accommodation. I think he was cribbing from the speech my hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) made on Second Reading, because my hon. Friend made the same point and in fact collated the data on children in homeless households, among other things. In 2006, there were 526,000 overcrowded households and 667,000 empty properties in England alone. That is the historical perspective. I respect the sincerity of Labour Members and the fact that they care about the issues, so although it should come as no surprise to them that their Government have delivered that situation after 11 years in power I can understand their sense of resentment.