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Building Britain's Future

My right hon. Friend is right. We are endeavouring through the way in which the new homes are procured and through the house building regulations to ensure that new buildings conform to higher standards of energy efficiency and therefore produce reductions in carbon emissions and, indeed, savings on people’s energy bills. Crucially, we need to make sure that the people building those homes have the skills and knowledge to achieve that. There is also a need to join up, for example, the jobs fund providing job opportunities for young people in the construction industry with the necessary training in the new skills to allow those new homes to be built. I think that we get wins all round, as communities get homes and jobs and as we tackle the huge climate change challenge that we know is ahead. I shall take back to my ministerial colleagues the message about the importance of putting those things together. My right hon. Friend is right: it is built into the criteria that such homes should reach certain energy efficiency levels, to ensure that we are building homes that are sustainable in the longer term. In the past year, I have felt worried about the group of people who are furthest from the housing and labour markets. Those people might have mental health problems or learning disabilities and find it hard at the best of times to get somewhere to live independently, to be supported to do that, or to get employment. I set up a housing sounding board to consider what more we might do to provide affordable homes. Finally, a key element of what I am discussing is transport. We need a transport system that balances the needs of the economy, society and the environment. A good transport system would help us, as a region, to deliver greater competitiveness and growth. We have continued to show our commitment to investment in transport in the region. We accepted the region’s advice on transport within the regional funding advice priorities, with more than £2 billion to meet those priorities in the next 10 years. I shall give two examples. The work to widen the A46 and the A453 in the same time frame has been possible because of funding from the RFA package and additional funding from the Chancellor’s fiscal stimulus. We are investing in improving capacity on key national routes in the east midlands, such as the M1 widening scheme, and making considerable investment on the A14 around Kettering, to help unlock housing and economic growth. I am delighted that we opened the Corby railway station this year—I would say that, as I am the MP for Corby; forgive me, Mr. Taylor—and the East Midlands Parkway station. That is more investment in the rail network, and both are important contributions. We are supporting the extensions to Nottingham’s tram system, to tackle congestion in one of the nation’s premier cities.