Prime Minister out of touch with housing crisis

Average prices in the borough are well over half a million pounds, rent is soaring, with overcrowding and demand for social housing the highest I have seen in 20 years.

Yet the Government's Housing and Planning Bill offers Hackney nothing.

The fact that many so called affordable homes are out of reach of working Londoners shows that the affordability 'criteria' are a long way removed from reality.

I want to see action on affordable housing. Nurses, shop workers, even people on higher salaries are being priced out.

This Bill will see people even on modest incomes threatened with the prospect of paying full market rent in their Council and housing association homes. Ending secure council tenancies means the Government is legislating to deny families a stable home.

I will be fighting this Bill when it returns to the Commons in May.

You can watch my question below:

You can read my question below:

Meg Hillier MP, Hackney South and Shoreditch

Q13. The average property price in my borough of Hackney is £682,000, the median lower quartile rent for a two-bedroom flat for a month is £1,500, and overcrowding and demand for social housing are the highest I have seen in 20 years. Will the Prime Minister tell my constituents how on earth the Housing and Planning Bill is going to help them? [904575]

Prime Minister:

It is going to help them because we are building starter homes for the first time for people to buy, we are extending the right to buy to housing association tenants so they can buy homes"”[Interruption.] I notice Lady Nugee giving us the benefit of her wisdom, but many people in her constituency would love to buy a council house or a housing association house. We also have the Help to Buy scheme, which is helping many people get on the housing ladder, and shared ownership as well. All of those things will help. Since 2010, 101,000 homes have been built in London, including 67,000 affordable homes. We need to build many more and to make them accessible to people who work hard and do the right thing. That is whose side we are on.