Speeches by Curtis.

“I did promise the Chair it would be a quick question.”

“A quick question to Louise. One issue on more fiscal devolution brought up in the previous panel was on inequality between regions. The other issue, which we did not speak about before, was the idea of creating favourable tax arrangements over here which can move certain organisations in and lowering the overall tax ba…”

“Do you mind if I add to that as well? You have this taskforce for ending homelessness, which is going to be working cross-Department. Will that taskforce be looking into this alongside your colleagues in that other Department? On that strategy note that you discussed with us earlier, will you release your findings afte…”

“That is the key point as well. As I alluded to in the first question, the reason we are having to spend so much on this is that this country has not been building enough houses and it has driven up the cost of housing. If we accept that that is true and that, as you have just said, that problem is not going to be solve…”

“Thank you, Minister. You have talked a lot about the importance of prevention. You have also talked a lot about the importance of increasing that supply of homes. Clearly, the best way of ensuring that everyone has a home to live in is ensuring that we build enough homes for people to live in. In your opinion, is there…”

“I am Chris Curtis, Milton Keynes North.”

“Do you mind if I add to that as well? You have this taskforce for ending homelessness, which is going to be working cross-Department. Will that taskforce be looking into this alongside your colleagues in that other Department? On that strategy note that you discussed with us earlier, will you release your findings afte…”

“That is the key point as well. As I alluded to in the first question, the reason we are having to spend so much on this is that this country has not been building enough houses and it has driven up the cost of housing. If we accept that that is true and that, as you have just said, that problem is not going to be solve…”

“Thank you, Minister. You have talked a lot about the importance of prevention. You have also talked a lot about the importance of increasing that supply of homes. Clearly, the best way of ensuring that everyone has a home to live in is ensuring that we build enough homes for people to live in. In your opinion, is there…”

“I am Chris Curtis, Milton Keynes North.”

“The last time the Secretary of State came to the Chamber to talk about the new hospital programme, I shared the story of taking my 93-year-old grandmother to accident and emergency at Milton Keynes hospital, only to be told when we got there that the wait time was nine and a half hours. I am afraid to say she was back …”

“If there was that 10-year settlement rather than a five‑year settlement, you think you would be able to double the number of homes you take on.”

“Assuming you have a fixed budget—this is quite an out‑there question—is it possible to put a figure on what percentage extra homes you would be able to get built, or take on, if you had that 10 years rather than five years? Is it possible to come up with an estimate of what kind of difference that would make?”

“I am Chris Curtis. I am the MP for Milton Keynes North.”

“We need it to be going up, though. If we want to do 300,000 homes a year, we need it to be going up dramatically. Fiona MacGregor: Yes, but to get the numbers up, it is not necessarily a question of the availability of finance. There is lots of finance in the sector. It is still very liquid. Lenders are still very will…”

“My final point might be slightly more for Fiona. A lot of the current registered providers are not for profit and are going to have most of their money focused on fixing up the stock they have. It would be great to have more grant money and it would be great to have more certainty on financing, and many of us will keep…”

“Before I come on to ways that the Government can be more helpful, there were many things that Kate mentioned in the previous panel about how registered providers are not bidding and are not taking on at the moment because they just do not think that the quality of what is being offered is good enough. Do you also think…”

“I am going to come in on this specific point because it is probably one of the most important points, particularly for the 1.5 million target at the moment. On the capacity point and local plan, do you think 300 extra planning officers are enough, or do you think the councils should be doing a lot more than that?”

“That is probably leading the witness.”

“The broad point is that you will be underachieving 300,000 in the early years of the Parliament to overachieve later in the Parliament, and hopefully in subsequent Parliaments as well. One issue would be that the housing target you are setting local councils is 370,000. The reason is it 370,000, as opposed to 300,000, …”