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Building Britain's Future

There are two things to say about that; one is that it brings me on to my next point; but it is also worth noting in passing that Labour-run North-East Derbyshire and Bolsover have got a big fat zero, so the hon. Gentleman would obviously be very critical of his colleagues there. Of course the next question is why councils—and most councils have got no housing at all out of the deal—have found it difficult to put the funding in; because it was, of course, a matter of match funding. The other aspect of the way the Government have not allowed council house building to happen in the past 12 years, and have created the terrible human misery of a waiting list of nearly 2 million, is the fact that they have taken away money that councils would at one time have had to invest in social housing, and have redirected it to other things. Seventy-five per cent. of all the money from the right to buy disappears into Government coffers. It does not stay in Chesterfield, North-East Derbyshire, Bassetlaw or anywhere else. It does not go back into social housing. A huge percentage of council rents amounting to millions of pounds has been taken from such councils as Chesterfield, St. Albans and others throughout the country, under all types of political control. That money has been taken by the Government to be spent on other things. Much of it does not go back into social housing, whether through housing associations or councils. If all that money had been put back into the system, we would not have the dire human misery and social consequences associated with the shortage of social housing that now exists. If the Government had, at the start of the year, taken the Obama line of shovel-ready projects and turning crisis into opportunity, how different it could be. Where does the money come from for that? I can think of one possible route. The Government announced in December a £12.5 billion forgoing of VAT receipts through a 2.5 per cent. cut in VAT, which all economic analysts have said made no difference to retail sales. If the Government boast about the £127 million that they have announced today, which with council match funding will build 2,000 houses, what could they have done with £12.5 billion receipts? The Federation of Master Builders said explicitly that that sort of money should go to allowing councils to operate as housing associations do, to build council housing. That would have put 250,000 unemployed building workers—or a large chunk of that number—back into work; it would have provided the capital infrastructure, which would have remained for generations and would not have disappeared in a puff of smoke, like this year’s £12.5 billion in lost VAT receipts. It would be a legacy for up to a century, to provide a benefit to society. However, the Government lost that opportunity. A reason for our slowness to come out of the recession, and for all the economic analysts saying that we will be the last in Europe to do so, is the fact that the Government frittered away £12.5 billion that could have been put to better use, as well as the fact that they do not allow local authorities to control their finances as they would in France, Germany, Scandinavia or, indeed, the USA, and invest through prudential borrowing in local economic development. Many other points have been raised, and, given the time, I shall quickly mention them in passing. We have heard mention of the need for skills training for young people, whether at school, college or university. The need is even greater in recession, because otherwise there will not be a skilled work force when the upturn begins. Chesterfield, like most colleges in the country, had the plug pulled on it because of the incompetence of the Learning and Skills Council in handling the capital projects. Had the college gone ahead some years ago with its original scheme for a modest refurbishment, that would be done and dusted now. Instead, the LSC, operating for the Government, said, ““No, scrap that; be more ambitious. Go for a complete rebuild.”” Like colleges the length and breadth of England, it received not a penny; it was told, ““You will get nothing.”” It will not get all the funding, contrary to the Minister’s reassurances earlier, for the increased number of places on training courses for the unemployed and on Train to Gain. We have heard about transport needs, and the need for a high-speed rail line and electrification; but we are not going to see that. Finally, on the council role in economic development and installing infrastructure, I shall give the Labour party some praise, because 20 years ago, when it ran Chesterfield borough council, it directed what money it could squeeze out, and that the Government allowed it, into building economic units. That is something that the council has continued to do over the past six years. At a time when the private sector was not interested in a deprived area—a former coalfield that was closed down with mass unemployment after 1992—the council started the pump-priming that made Chesterfield an attractive place. Many private sector businesses are interested in places such as Chesterfield now, because of pump-priming by councils over the years. However, the Government, like the Government of the 1980s, do not trust local authorities to carry out such operations. It is time that those policies were reversed and that instead of just paying lip service to the idea of localism there should be a real change in councils’ power to operate.