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Mr. Andrew F. Bennett (Denton and Reddish): Will the Chancellor tell us exactly what will happen to social housing? It seemed to be very good in the statement that there would be extra money for renovation and modernisation of housing stock. However, does he accept that poor housing can lead to poor health, and that poor housing makes it extremely difficult for young people to learn? Is it not very important that, if there is not--as I think--any extra money for social housing in the next three years, we should find new and imaginative ways of getting that type of social housing built?
Mr. Brown: And it is exactly what we are doing. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for allowing me to amplify on my earlier comments. The fact is that £3.6 billion from capital receipts will be invested in building and repairing existing council housing--allowing 1.5 million homes to be refurbished, and reducing the repair backlog by at least 250,000. There will also be a new housing inspectorate, as part of the best value regime, that will have real power to tackle poor management in any part of the country.
My hon. Friend also asked for new and imaginative programmes. The new deal for the communities is exactly that. It will combine action on housing with action on employment, which is what is desperately needed in most areas.
There will be over £100 million to reduce rough sleeping. Our commitment to the homeless people of this country will be met. I visited one foyer, in Slough, which had just been opened. There are now 70 foyers round the country. We want to help young people to have both the housing and the employment opportunities that will give them the future they need. Today's announcement is about a programme for new investment--with reform--in housing, particularly for those who are in the greatest difficulty.
Sir Michael Spicer (West Worcestershire):
How can it possibly be prudent to raise public expenditure totals
Mr. Brown:
The hon. Gentleman should have been in the House a few weeks ago, when I explained exactly how our proposals would be financed. We have created--by the two new fiscal rules that we have adopted--a public spending control regime and financial discipline that gives us both a current Budget balance over the economic cycle and a reduced level of debt to GDP. As I said earlier today, other Governments have tried in past years to achieve a balance in the current Budget and a sustainable debt level, but have failed to do so. The previous Government had a 1.5 per cent. deficit on current spending--equivalent to a £12 billion deficit every year--but we will have a balance.
Sir Michael Spicer:
Answer the question.
Mr. Brown:
I am answering the question.
The hon. Gentleman's idea that that is somehow not prudent is answered by the two rules that we are applying, and by our ability to get debt below 40 per cent. and to run a current Budget balance. That is how we are being prudent. We have been able to get so much money to health and education by reallocating resources within the moneys that are available to us. We kept to our promises, and we kept within the tight ceilings we set for our first two years. We reduced borrowing by £20 billion. I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman would give us credit for that.
The fiscal tightening that we have achieved this year will be achieved next year as well. This is a prudent settlement, but one based on good public services. It is only the Conservative party that believes that prudence means having to cut public services and public investment. We have shown that one can have both prudence and investment in the priority public services.
Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge):
Does my right hon. Friend accept that, for most parents, education is an absolutely top priority, and that his statement will be met with great delight by many of our constituents? Does he agree that classes of approaching 40 pupils are simply unacceptable? Will he ensure that the money is spent in such a way that the less well funded authorities are brought much closer to the better-funded authorities, and that county councils, especially those that are Conservative-controlled, are persuaded to use the money as it is intended--for education?
Mr. Brown:
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. The money has been allocated for education, and Conservative-controlled local authorities should honour what the people of this country want and invest the money in education. I also agree that we must get class sizes for five, six and seven-year-olds down, and the money that we have invested will enable us to do so.
My hon. Friend will be interested to know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment will be making a statement to the House tomorrow. He will outline targets and the stages by which they will be met. Representing the constituency she does, my hon. Friend will be delighted to know that the
investment in science laboratories in our universities and colleges--more investment in education--is at a level that has never before been seen in this country, as a result of the new public-private partnerships that we are announcing. We are investing in education, schools and universities and in research. That is an important commitment to the future of this country.
Mr. Dafydd Wigley (Caernarfon):
When the froth and hype have settled, is not the truth to be found on page 109 of the White Paper? It shows a standstill expenditure budget through to April 2000, that in real terms the expenditure for 1999-2000 is lower than the average for 1994-96, and that the Welsh Office budget for1999-2000, at £6.7 billion, will in real terms be the same as it was back in 1994-95? In a week that the Government published a paper for Wales showing that 250,000 people are looking for jobs, surely we need economic stimulation now, not jam tomorrow, in three years' time.
Mr. Brown:
If the right hon. Gentleman is concerned, as I know he is, about unemployment, he should not only support the new deal for young people and the long-term unemployed but welcome the fact that we are today announcing a new deal for communities. Far from the facts about expenditure in Wales being as he is trying to present them to the House, the average annual real spending increase will be 2.6 per cent.--£2.2 billion extra over the next three years. That meets our commitment to Wales on education and health, which is one reason that the Labour Government are so popular with the people of Wales.
Mr. Dale Campbell-Savours (Workington):
This evening, many people in further and higher education across the country will be very happy with the £1.1 billion extra that is to go into the science budget, and with the extra 500,000--half a million--new places to be found in further and higher education. Do not the new commitments from the Labour Government require a new impetus from Cumbria county council to bring forward the project for the university of the lakes, a project that is greatly required in the county of Cumbria? In Cumbria, we must be at the forefront in taking our share of the vast amount of new money being brought on stream.
Mr. Brown:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who has always been greatly interested in education, especially in the future of higher and further education. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment will listen with interest to his comments about the university of the lakes.
It is because we have taken the difficult decisions about student finance that we are able to say that there will be at least half a million more students in higher and further education by the end of this Parliament. That means that half a million people who were denied the opportunity to develop their talents and fulfil their potential because of the cap that the Conservatives put on entry into higher education will now have that opportunity.
As for science, under the Conservative Government, public-private partnerships were replacing public funds with private funds. We have shown today that it is possible to add to public investment with substantial private investment. Instead of £700 million being spent on science, £1.1 billion will be spent as a result of investment by the Wellcome Foundation.
These public-private partnerships, which enhance public investment in science, also make for the renewal of our science infrastructure and building for the future, in terms of the jobs that will be created and the strengthening of the economy. I hope that all hon. Members welcome what we are doing for science.
Mr. Howard Flight (Arundel and South Downs):
With creative accounting, anyone can paint a picture that appears to meet all objectives. The Chancellor constantly chants the mantra of prudence, but what does he have to say about what is going on in Japan and Asia? I have been a Member of Parliament for a little over a year, and in that time I have been amazed never to hear anything from the Chancellor about the impact on our economy of the major contracting problems in other parts of the world.
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