---

Housing and Regeneration Bill

My right hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford) made the excellent point that there was something like a £20 billion backlog and appalling standards. People were living in slums in local authority sectors. We have provided sustained investment in social housing, combined with private funding, to provide about 500,000 new kitchens, 500,000 new windows so that people are able to save on fuel bills and achieve greater energy efficiency, and 918,000 new central heating systems. One million children—the equivalent of a city the size of Birmingham—have been lifted out of inadequate social housing. That is a record that we should be proud of, and the hon. Gentleman should appreciate the size of the backlog that we have had to address over the past 10 years.