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Housing and the Credit Crunch

I am grateful for that intervention. I want to finish by the top of the hour, so I shall press on except to say that I am the Conservative who represents the most council tenants in the country, and that I want my 9,500 council houses—and the greater number of council tenants in them—to have the protection of a proper regulatory structure. The fact that the TSA does not yet cover them, coupled with my concern about the speed at which things are moving, makes me wonder whether it is going about things in the best way, or whether there are other ways of helping to provide those services to my constituent tenants and the hon. Lady's. My final point is about the announcement, in the week before last, on "Moving Britain Forward" or whatever the latest catchphrase for a relaunch is, in which £1.5 billion was again promised to affordable housing. That is on top of the very admirable £8.4 billion from 2008-11. It is not for lack of promises that we have failed to build enough homes in the past few years. The confusion started almost from the moment that the £1.5 billion was mentioned, not least because the Government have yet to explain, even today, a fortnight later, where the cash is coming from. We understand that half has to be found from the communities and local government budget and that that money still has not been found. In the No. 10 briefings, morning after morning, we have been promised that this information will be released. Will the Minister explain where that half of the £1.5 billion is coming from? Is it the case, as many of us fear, that the only popular HomeBuy programme, Open Market HomeBuy—it gets confusing, so, for the Minister's reference that programme takes in the My Choice HomeBuy and the Own Home programme—has been cut, at a saving of about £210 million, to contribute towards the communities and local government half of that £1.5 billion programme? If that is the case, will the Minister accept that the Government are robbing Peter to pay Paul? Given their appalling record on housing, particularly on social and affordable housing, will he admit that the game is finally up?