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Construction Industry
8. Mr. Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the condition of the construction industry with particular reference to the house building sector. [33940]
Mr. Gummer: There is evidence of increasing activity in the housing market as the effects of our sound economic management work through to improve consumer confidence. We look forward to a continuing recovery this year.
Mr. Winterton: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his excellent and far-sighted speech to the Royal Town Planning Institute, and on highlighting the need to build more houses to meet the growth in household numbers, but is he aware that his wise words are falling on deaf ears, with county councils from Devon to Oxfordshire and from Hampshire to Cheshire ignoring the housing numbers required in regional guidance? Will he assure me that he will advise those county councils seeking to pass the housing buck that he will ensure that housing numbers in the structure plans are properly adhered to?
Mr. Gummer: I am sure that the House would want to congratulate my hon. Friend on his chairmanship of the Manufacturing and Construction Industries Alliance Ltd., which has been expressing these views. I am especially concerned that we use all the land that has already been used to rebuild in the centres of our cities. I am still concerned about many local authorities that are not prepared to put together the land and to create opportunities for private builders, to build in those circumstances. I am insisting that the amount of land that needs to be released because of the figures shall be so released.
Mr. Dobson: The Secretary of State said in his speech, to which reference has been made, that the Government were estimating that an extra 4.4 million homes would be needed just to meet the needs of new households in the next 20 years, and that that excludes the 1.5 million homes that need to be done up because they are unfit for human habitation. Is it not the case that we are building only
137,000 homes a year, which means that, at the present rate, the Government will fall 1.5 million homes short of their target? Would it not be a better idea if, instead of calling for national debates, the right hon. Gentleman got on with getting some houses built now, rather than talking about the far blue yonder, when he will not be in power because new Labour will be in new government?
Mr. Gummer: I had to give the hon. Gentleman an opportunity for the debate, because he has already contributed to both sides of it. First, he told the Union of Construction Allied Trades and Technicians that not enough houses were being built.
Mr. Gummer: Then the hon. Gentleman told the Council for the Protection of Rural England that he would not build as many houses. [Interruption.] Oh yes.
Mr. Gummer: I will quote the hon. Gentleman's words in case he forgets them:
- "we are looking at . . . shifting . . . from the present presumption in favour of development . . . 4.4 million households is a major threat to rural England."
Mr. Harry Greenway: On a point of order, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker: I do not take points of order until after questions.
Mr. Greenway rose--[Interruption.]
Madam Speaker: Order. How can I hear what the hon. Gentleman is saying with everyone bawling and shouting? Do shut up until Mr. Greenway has said what he wants to say.
Mr. Greenway: I distinctly heard the Labour party spokesman use the unparliamentary term "liar" at least five times. Is that in order?
Madam Speaker: Is that the case?
Mr. Dobson: I did use that word and I withdraw it.
Madam Speaker: I am obliged. The hon. Gentleman admits to using the word and it has now been withdrawn. Who was I about to call? I want somebody who can put a direct question. I call Mr. Coombs.
Mr. Anthony Coombs: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that recent surveys by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors show a significant improvement in sentiment in the housing market and considerably improved activity? Is
that not the result of sustained low interest rates? Is it not a bit rich for the Labour party, in the form of its shadow spokesman, to talk about improving consumer confidence when the last time the Labour party was in government there was an average rate of interest--
Madam Speaker: Order. I remind the hon. Gentleman, although he should not need reminding, that Ministers of the Crown are responsible for their policies. They are accountable to the House not for anybody else's policies, but for their own actions. Let us now see if we can find a decent question somewhere. I call Mr. Tony Banks.
County Hall, London
9. Mr. Tony Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what applications under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species regulations have been made in respect of an aquarium in county hall, London SE1. [33941]
Madam Speaker: That is a good answer.
Mr. Banks: You may think so, Madam Speaker, but it is a terrible answer.
Madam Speaker: At least it is a straightforward answer.
Mr. Banks: Unfortunately, it is not a helpful one, as an aquarium is due to open at county hall and it would appear that the Shirayama corporation, which is to run the aquarium, has not yet sought permission from the Department of the Environment for the species that it intends to import. Will the Minister check what species the organisers intend to put into the aquarium? It is not at all acceptable in terms of animal welfare. In view of what the Japanese are doing in the Antarctic--killing minke whales under the guise of scientific whaling in order to eat them--will the Minister check that they will not use the aquarium in county hall to bring in dolphins so that they can serve whale meat in the restaurants?
Mr. Clappison: I can help the hon. Gentleman. I understand that the organisation has applied under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981. Notwithstanding the building's former use, apparently such an application is required. I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman's hon. Friend the Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone) would approve of the use of county hall as an aquarium. I cannot say whether there will be any newts in the aquarium, but it will definitely contain dog-faced puffers, tomato clown fish and red-bellied piranhas, among others. I understand that no application is required under CITES. I know that the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks) is an expert on endangered species, and also something of an authority on endangered species within the Labour party--Members who speak their mind.
Mr. Bernard Jenkin: Does my hon. Friend recall a time when certain unattractive species used to inhabit county hall? Can he give an undertaking that those
dangerous and expensive species, who promised to spend a great deal of money to no good effect, will never be allowed back into county hall?
Mr. Clappison: Thankfully, that species is becoming endangered and will become even more so when the public hear of the plans to create unnecessary bureaucracy and waste in London with organisations which duplicate work being done by others, all of which will result in substantial expense for London taxpayers--a new form of danger from new Labour.
Millennium Exhibition
10. Sir Michael Neubert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to enhance the riverside amenities in the vicinity of the north Greenwich peninsula in preparation for the holding of the millennium exhibition there. [33942]
Mr. Gummer: We shall ensure that the Greenwich peninsula is properly reorganised and redeveloped in a manner that will be not only important for the millennium exhibition but valuable to the citizens of London for the rest of the century. If my hon. Friend has any supplementary questions, I shall be happy to answer them.
Sir Michael Neubert: Does my right hon. Friend accept that it is important that the millennium exhibition should not introspectively gaze only at its navel but should look outwards to the river, that great but greatly underused natural highway which flows through our capital and around the north Greenwich peninsula? Impressive though the Jubilee line extension will be when it is completed, should we not give every encouragement to those wishing to experience an approach to the exhibition from the water, as was the case with the festival of Britain, when more than 5 million people took to the Thames for their transport?
Mr. Gummer: The Thames should be used as one of the accesses to the millennium exhibition. It is also important that we improve that area of London, which has been particularly damaged by successive Labour councils in the borough of Greenwich, where the development has not been helped. I hope that the effect of the single regeneration budget, which is certainly one of the ways in which to help that development, will enable other sources to be tapped. The river is crucial to the overall development of an area which, sadly, has been neglected for many years.
Mr. Spearing: Is the Secretary of State aware that immediately to the north of the chosen millennium site at Greenwich are two sites available in the London borough of Newham? As he knows, the first is within 500 yd of the millennium site and is the two and a half miles of the royal docks. It has great potential for development, including a national exhibition centre. Secondly, within a mile to the north, the lower Lea valley could add to the millennium celebrations 100 acres of land for which the Government have so far failed to provide a reasonable and imaginative scheme, as we should all like.
Mr. Gummer: Much as I respect the hon. Gentleman, who has made a great contribution, I wonder how he can celebrate all the work that has been done by the London Docklands development corporation in view of the extent to which he and his fellow socialists attacked it and said that it was unacceptable. The LDDC has done more for London's development than any other organisation, perhaps for a century. I merely hope that when it winds down and hands on many of its responsibilities to the boroughs, the hon. Gentleman will ensure that those boroughs do half as good a job as the LDDC has done.
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