Prime Minister's social housing list reform is 'spin over substance'

Anne Main questioned the Prime Minister over his claims that the Government would reform social housing allocation.

Following a statement by the Prime Minister earlier this week (29/6), setting out a building programme aimed at constructing 110,000 new homes, Anne Main, MP for St Albans, questioned the Prime Minister over his claims that the Government would reform social housing allocation to enable local authorities to give more priority to local people whose names have been on waiting lists for a long time.

During the debate, Anne said:

"The Prime Minister said that he wanted to give more priority to local housing for local people. How will he make that fit? He could not make British jobs for British workers fit. Surely he does not disagree with the proposition that local people should not be given housing before people who should be given more priority because they are homeless or have large families."

The Prime Minister responded:

"I have just announced that more houses will be built, and as a result we can now reform the housing allocation system. That is what I have announced today."

Upon leaving the chamber, Anne added:

"This was pure spin over substance on behalf of Prime Minister. He knows perfectly well that to even register on a local housing list you already have to demonstrate some local connections or roots. I believe that families and people with a strong local connection should be able to live locally if they choose to, but I know full well that he will not try to scrap a system which currently prioritises the homeless and larger family units for housing. When I challenged him to disagree with that premise, he dodged the question.