In an intervention on my hon. Friend the Member for South Shields, I mentioned a DWP Minister’s suggestion that if councils were struggling with three-bedroom houses that they could not let, they should have anticipated the problem and taken steps to divide those houses. I was fantasising slightly about how that would work. Let us take a typical three up, two down property in England; in Scotland, we are more likely to be talking about a tenement flat. What exactly would be involved in dividing it? First, either the tenants would somehow have to use the same door and stairs, or the council would have to create a separate entrance, which would cost money. One of the upstairs rooms would have to be converted into some form of kitchen, which would cost money. That leaves the downstairs, which would have a kitchen, but not a bathroom. Where would the bathroom go, or at least a toilet? A bathroom extension? Remember there are only two rooms and a kitchen downstairs, so building a bathroom would not be easy, unless it were built outside, and an extension costs money. Then I thought, “I know what the Minister must have had in mind: a portaloo in the back garden.” That would take us right back to the days when people had outside toilets, but it might help get the house divided up. It would involve not only huge additional cost but a style

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of living that I hope most of us would think inappropriate. That shows how little thought was given in practical reality.

It is the same with the idea that everybody could take in lodgers. That does not take into consideration the nature of many of the properties in which people live, and the difficulties involved.

Kate Green: Does my hon. Friend not also accept that that would be a particularly unwelcome suggestion to women fleeing domestic abuse and violence, for example? The idea that they might have to take in a stranger as a lodger after experiences that may have absolutely traumatised them is particularly inimical. That is exactly the situation faced by one of my constituents.

Sheila Gilmore: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Many people would find the concept of taking in a lodger extremely difficult, particularly given the nature of many properties. I visited a constituent whose kitchen was off the living room, and whose bedrooms were not particularly big. When someone has a lodger, they are sharing a house. They are not taking in a lodger who has a self-contained annexe of the house; they are taking someone into the bosom of their household. The 60-year-old woman in question felt that that was not somewhere she needed to be in her life.

Ian Lavery: I am totally perplexed by the Government’s advice to take in a lodger, which was given from day one of the bedroom tax. Some 400,000 of the 600,000 people affected by the bedroom tax are disabled. Would disabled people want to bring in a stranger, just so they could afford to pay the rent?

Sheila Gilmore: The reality is that people are not taking on lodgers. The rhetoric on lodgers has quietened down, presumably because the impracticality of that idea has revealed itself. If the measure was about making better use of property, it was not the best way of going about that. It would be far better to encourage people to move in some circumstances, but that is neither a quick nor an easy process. It has to be planned for, and that comes back to looking at the nature of the local housing market and how those moves can be dealt with.

Older tenants in larger homes might want to downsize—if they are over retirement age, they will not be affected by the bedroom tax—but the bedroom tax will not whip them into wanting to move. Over the years, I have had many constituents say to me, “Yes, I would move. The stairs are getting too much for me. The garden is getting too much for me”, but they want control over where they go, and want to keep some of the things they like about their present home. Often that means the area, and that does not necessarily only go for those who live in what is perceived as a “good area”. Their area is where they have their social circle, and their family might not be too far away. There will be many reciprocal family arrangements, whether that is daughters helping mothers, or mothers helping their grown-up children with child care and picking kids up from school. All those sorts of things cannot be done if they are moved to the other end of town. Okay, they are fussy, but they are fussy because they want the move to be one that will last them the rest of their lives. They do not want to rush into something that is unsuitable.

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All authorities might want to build new build housing that is geared to older people. If authorities do their homework properly, they will know in advance that that will release larger houses. The homework, however, has to be done, and investment is needed. If the investment is not there, it becomes very difficult. New build numbers are dropping, not only in England and Wales, which the Minister is concerned with, but in Scotland, too. In the whole of Scotland, new starts have dropped from the high point in 2007-08 of 6,214 to just 2,781 in 2012-13. That is a substantial drop. We want to have new build available to help people move around, but it is just not there.

There are many things that we should be looking at. We should be considering building new homes. Councils might want to consider—I have suggested this to my local council—buying some properties at comparable prices. They should not pay more for a property than it would cost to build, but that would help deal with some of the biggest chronic housing shortages. When homeless families, even those with children, are waiting in temporary accommodation for up to a year to get anything, we have a crisis, not just a slight shortage.

There is a further win-win in all this, which perhaps brings us back to the stated purpose of the bedroom tax. If more affordable housing is built, we can reduce the total housing benefit spend. It is true that the spend has gone up in recent years—the Government are not wrong to point that out—but their predictions and forecasts for the next few years are that the spend will continue to rise until at least 2016-17, when it will reach £23.38 billion.

Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend agree that the major increase in housing benefit has come from the increase in benefit paid to people in private accommodation, not to those in social housing?

Sheila Gilmore: Indeed. I have some figures, although they take us only to 2010-11. In 2000-01, the spend on private rented sector housing benefit was £3.6 billion. By 2010-11, that had risen to £8.9 billion, and it has risen again since then. The number of recipients of housing benefit rose under this Government by 326,597 people or households between May 2010 and February 2013. More than twice as many of those—some 218,209—were in the private rented sector than were in council and housing association housing. All the time that the Government have been in power, wringing their hands about the rising housing benefit bill and saying that measures such as the bedroom tax are the way to tackle it, the number of recipients has gone up, and the amount of money we are spending has gone up.

We are not tackling the issue from the right end. If we had a proper housing investment programme for affordable housing, that would bring down the housing benefit bill. That is what we should be aiming to do. It would give many individuals a real incentive and help in getting back to work, because having people in expensive private sector rented accommodation, whether it is temporary, permanent or semi-permanent, is a disincentive to employment.

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I have a constituent who has been living in a private sector property that was provided to him when he was homeless, because we do not have enough council and housing association homes. His rent payments are £815 a month, which probably does not sound much in London terms, although it is high in Edinburgh terms. When he was working, he still had to pay half of that rent from his earnings. In the end, he gave up his job, partly because of the financial pressures that he was then under. If he had a council or housing association rented property, he could have afforded much more easily to get back into work. There are all sorts of reasons why housing investment is a win-win-win. It is a win because we would get the houses; because we would begin to reduce the total housing benefit bill; and because we would be doing something serious—not just haranguing people about getting back to work, but putting in place practical measures—to help people get back to work.

We need to look at the fact that the bedroom tax has done the opposite of that. It has created a situation where both councils and housing associations are anxious about the loss of income. It matters to all tenants, because all tenants are being impacted on, not just those affected by the bedroom tax. I made that point to a Government Minister recently, and pointed out that even pensioners and tenants who are not on housing benefit are being affected by the bedroom tax. The response I got—they had half-heard the question—was, “But pensioners are not affected.” That was not my point. My point was that if the landlord, be it the council or the housing association, has less income coming in, that will affect all the other tenants, because that organisation will have only a few choices. It could cut back on its modernisation programme, and that would affect pensioners who have been waiting for many years, as many of my constituents have, for their kitchens and bathrooms to be modernised. They would have to wait even more years.

Lilian Greenwood: Does my hon. Friend agree that our social landlords are not only facing extra arrears, but having to put in extra resources to deal with having to chase people for arrears? Nottingham City Homes told me that it has already had to spend an extra £300,000 on staff and resources to deal with the extra demands on the rent arrears team. Is it not a concern that the extra spending on such things is not going on other tenants and their homes?

Sheila Gilmore: Yes, indeed. Landlords will have quite limited choices. If they are not going to do anything about their modernisation programme, they will certainly be looking at their new build programme or at raising rents, which, again, affects all tenants. It is not true to say therefore that these issues affect only those who are directly affected by the bedroom tax.

If the bedroom tax means that less income is coming in and that there is less ability to start and fund new build programmes, it will not increase supply; it will do precisely the opposite of what Ministers have tried to claim that they want it to do. We really need to move away from this approach and to realise that it is not working. We have not only the arrears, but a whole administrative apparatus to help people who have run into arrears and to process discretionary housing payments

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and appeals for discretionary housing payments, which may have to be reprocessed every year or six months. That involves a cost that people did not have to meet before.

The glib answer is that discretionary housing payments are the solution, but they reduce savings, which is yet another reason for thinking this whole thing has been a bit pointless. Furthermore, people who have, by definition, been means-tested are now being given a further means test—that is what this comes down to—on their already low income to see whether they qualify for discretionary housing payments. The forms ask them about their expenditure and about whether they have Sky television or whether they smoke.

Things such as disability living allowance, which is specifically given to meet the costs of disability and illness are being taken into account in declaring that people can afford to pay the bedroom tax. People were never given DLA to pay their rent, and if they are using it to do so because they have been deemed to have enough income to meet the gap between their rent and the housing benefit that they receive, they are not spending their DLA on their disability. Having a second tier of means tests is quite unacceptable. I talked about outside toilets, and we are back in the 1930s again with this issue; we are back with the means-test officer telling people that they really did not need the sideboard or the record player they had had for some years, because they were too poor.

Stephen Doughty: Or we have the Minister, Lord Freud, telling split-up families that the kids should share a sofa bed—that is the type of perversity being suggested by Ministers, and that is the means-testing culture that we are getting into. That is a sad message for a Minister to send out.

Sheila Gilmore: I thank my hon. Friend.

We must never forget the personal picture and the difficulties involved. One constituent is a cancer patient, although he is, fortunately, recovering. He has a two-bedroom house—nothing terribly big—and his three children come to him every weekend. One suffers from autism, which creates difficulties if the children have to share a room. My constituent wrote to the Prime Minister asking what he should do, and the Prime Minister said, “Apply for a discretionary housing payment.” Well, my constituent has, of course, applied for a discretionary housing payment, and he has been refused. He appealed, and he has been refused. I am not quite sure what he is expected to do next, other than to fall into rent arrears, which is what is happening. He is worrying about that, which probably is not helping his recovery. Alternatively, he could move, which will make it virtually impossible for him to have his boys to stay, which cannot be right.

I hope that we all agree that we want to increase the housing supply and particularly the affordable housing supply, so we have to agree that the bedroom tax is simply the wrong way to do that. It starts at the wrong end, and it is not resolving the problem, for all the reasons that have been given. If we really want to improve housing supply, we have to do two big things. One, obviously, is to invest in it, and the other is to allow local areas to decide on the appropriate way to address their problems. There will be differences; I have

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described how different my city is from some places in the north-east of England, which face quite different issues. We therefore need to allow local knowledge and local planning to come into play, but that is not happening with the policy that is being imposed.

Several hon. Members rose—

Mrs Linda Riordan (in the Chair): Order. Time is moving on, and a large number of Members wish to speak. I intend to call the Front Benchers at 3.40 pm. If Members can be respectful and keep their speeches to five minutes, I will be able to call everyone who wants to speak.

3.16 pm

Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mrs Riordan. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) on securing this important debate.

The stated aim of the under-occupancy penalty, to give it the Government’s preferred name, was to free up larger accommodation, and to cut the housing benefit bill by moving people into smaller properties. Well, the policy has not released larger accommodation; nor will it save the housing benefit it set out to save. Instead it will, as we have heard, drive people into the private rented sector and add to costs. Just where are local authorities and housing associations to find the smaller accommodation? The truth is that it could take years to place people in smaller homes, and that is assuming that no one’s circumstances change.

In Scotland, the UK Government’s changes to housing benefit have had a significant impact on claimants. The people affected by the changes are those with specially adapted homes to reflect their health conditions; separated parents, who potentially face losing access to their children; and tenants who are struggling to find alternative smaller accommodation, despite being willing to move.

All the under-occupancy charge has done in my constituency is bring people to the verge of crisis. Many are building up arrears, trying somehow to cope using discretionary housing payments, while others are desperately trying to find smaller accommodation. All that worry and panic is despite the best efforts of the housing associations and the council in Inverclyde. Advice agencies are also working together to reassure and help people. I recognise the assistance given by the Scottish Government to alleviate the cost of this penalty, although more could always be done.

The panic and fear instilled in our most vulnerable people is evidenced by Citizens Advice Scotland, which advised on almost 20,000 new housing benefit issues in 2012-13. That is about 75 per working day—an 11% increase on the previous year. However, there was a 40% increase in April 2013 compared with April 2012. Those increases can all be explained by the introduction of the new under-occupancy rules. In the first week after the start of the bedroom tax, 700 affected tenants approached Citizens Advice Scotland for advice. That is not to mention the numbers of worried, concerned and frightened people who visited my surgeries—and yes, I concede that many were exempt.

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Another concern about the housing supply relates to adapted homes. If people who have adapted their homes to cater for their disability by installing step-in showers or wet rooms decide to move rather than incur the penalty, they will need to reinstall these adaptations in their new home, at significant cost. Surely it cannot be seen as an effective way of spending time and resources to move people out of homes that meet their needs into new homes that do not, and that must subsequently be adapted. It is a crazy situation, and the cost is getting out of control. It is short-sighted, and an unbelievable waste, as it costs the taxpayer more money, never mind the upheaval for the individuals concerned.

The vast majority of those affected in my constituency will be moving from two-bedroom to one-bedroom accommodation, if they can. That is being replicated throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK. Of the 105,000 households in Scotland affected by the under-occupancy penalty, an estimated 83,000 include an adult with a recognised disability. The proposed changes will therefore have a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities. Many of those tenants have severe health conditions and face reductions in income that could affect their health. Adapted housing will be affected. Estimates show that some 16,000 households have some form of aid or adaptation already in place. I acknowledge that the UK Government have increased the fund for discretionary housing payments, but the funding is still far below the level of payments that will be lost by claimants.

Dr Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): The hon. Gentleman makes a powerful point about the eight out of 10 households in which a disabled person lives that are affected by the bedroom tax in Scotland. Does he accept that if people are to move to one-bedroom properties, those will almost certainly be in the private sector, where it will be even harder to get the kind of adaptations that disabled people often need in their homes?

Mr McKenzie: Absolutely. I fully accept that. I noted earlier in my speech that the changes are pushing people to find accommodation in the private sector, with all the additional costs involved.

Research by the National Housing Federation found that if the additional funding were to be distributed equally among every affected claimant of disability living allowance, they would each receive just £2.51 per week, compared with the average £11-a-week loss in housing benefit in Scotland. The pressure to find smaller homes and flats has become immense. In Inverclyde, there is a huge lack of one-bedroom accommodation. I ask the Minister: what are my constituents to do? Many will fall into arrears. Housing associations warned the Government from the start that the under-occupancy penalty would not work, and that families would face financial hardship and struggle to make ends meet.

Kate Green: On the point about arrears, does my hon. Friend agree that it is nonsensical that many housing associations will not move people who are in arrears into new accommodation? They will not give them new

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tenancy agreements until their arrears are cleared. That is one more perverse—indeed, Kafkaesque—consequence of the policy.

Mr McKenzie: My hon. Friend makes a good point. Housing associations need flexibility to ensure that no one falls into arrears, or into the eviction bracket.

Housing associations warned also that there would not be the house building that would be required for people to avoid the penalty. That is certainly true not only in Scotland but across the country. People cannot move to smaller homes to avoid the bedroom tax because there are not enough smaller properties. In Inverclyde, I could count on one hand the streets, outwith the private sector, that offer single-bedroom accommodation.

I ask again what my constituents are to do about the policy. There are now rent arrears, evictions, financial distress, and difficulty in finding alternative or adapted accommodation. That all shows that there is a lack of appropriate housing and house building throughout the country while we have the dreadful bedroom tax.

Several hon. Members rose—

Mrs Linda Riordan (in the Chair): Order. With the permission of the Chairman of Ways and Means, I intend to call the Front Benchers at 20 minutes to 4, so I impose a time limit of five minutes per Member.

3.23 pm

Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Riordan. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) on securing the debate. We shall, of course, have a further opportunity to deal with the issue next week, and I look forward to that.

I am glad to see the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnorshire (Roger Williams) to my left. I hope that he will soon leap up to defend the Government’s policy. I am also glad to see my hon. Friend the Member for Banff and Buchan (Dr Whiteford), because Plaid Cymru, the Scottish National party and the Green party called a debate on the issue in March. I am glad that the Labour party is joining us in opposing a cruel and pernicious charge.

The aim of the under-occupancy penalty is, allegedly, to free up the logjam in available housing. That is a laudable long-term aim, and people should clearly move to make way for younger people with families.

Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD): I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. He mentioned my name; I supported the Government’s proposal because I wanted young families to be given the opportunity to have better housing. As to the discretionary housing payment, my authority has been allocated £512,000, as opposed to £60,000 last year. It will not spend it, and will have to send it back to Government unless something is done. Does the hon. Gentleman think that the DWP inquiry should include the use of discretionary payments by local authorities?

Hywel Williams: That is a good point, to which I intended to refer later. I recently tabled several questions to the Government about the use of discretionary payments,

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what planning had gone into them, and what amounts were to be available this year and next year. The answers were clearly wanting.

The aim of the charges—freeing up the logjam in the availability of three-bedroom houses for younger people—is laudable in the long term. However, one of my fundamental objections is that the Government are using tenants as a battering ram to free up that logjam. Tenants are carrying the burden of the charge and will have to find alternative accommodation, when there is none available. That is pernicious, and destructive of communities. That is one reason, indeed, for my opposition to the charge.

Dr Whiteford: My hon. Friend makes a good point about the allocation of houses, and the need for housing for families; does he agree that social housing, which is always the cheapest available, should be allocated on the basis of need, not household size?

Hywel Williams: That is an excellent point. The need has in some ways been artificially generated, and that is not a sensible basis for housing policy, even if people are able to move. However, some hon. Members will have read in The Independent today that 96% of people are unable to move home.

I tabled a question to the Secretary of State, asking

“what estimate he has made of the number of people in Wales who will move house as a result of the social housing under-occupancy penalty.”

The answer was quite revealing:

“The Department is not able to reliably estimate the number of people in Wales who will move house as a result of the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy due to the small sample sizes involved.”—[Official Report, 4 November 2013; Vol. 570, c. 95W.]

That reveals a great deal, including the fact that the Government do not expect huge numbers of people to move. They expect, I understand, to make substantial savings on housing benefit. That is the reality, and the answer is something of a give-away.

Earlier in the year, I asked the Government what research they had undertaken into the private sector, and private market elasticity—the sector’s ability to respond to an increased demand for one-bedroom places. I was told that no such research had been undertaken before the measures were brought in. There would apparently be research in 2015, and reports would be published in 2016. That will be, of course, more than two and a half years after the charge was brought in—two and a half years of suffering by people who can scarcely afford to lose 12% or 25% of their benefit.

We have heard that particular groups are affected, such as disabled people, who have a legitimate need for extra space. I have constituents who have been charged extra. One such gentleman said, “I shall certainly move from my house, which has been adapted—there is a new bathroom at the back, and a stair lift—and move to a smaller place. The council can then put in a new stair lift, and a new bathroom at the back; and then I will move again.” It is folly. There are single parents without care who will take children for a day or so at the weekend, who will lose out.

More fundamentally, there is an effect on estates. We talk a lot about social life degenerating, and about things not being as good as they used to be. By the way, I was brought up on a council house estate. It was a

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stable area, with a mix of people from working-class and upper working-class backgrounds and those who were almost middle class, who had been there for a long time. They were the sort of people who had seen their children move on, but still lived in three-bedroom houses, and who provide for such estates the anchor and stability that we think are so important; yet the Government want them to move on. I understand that the technical term is “forced decanting”, which is very bad.

In the short time available to me, I want to point out that we might be left with a further supply of houses that are hard to let, not because they are in difficult areas or do not have basic facilities, but because they have three bedrooms. If the policy actually succeeds, that will be a potential waste of resources.

I end by referring briefly to funding for hardship. My local authority has a group—it brings in people from Shelter, the Department for Work and Pensions and Members of Parliament—to administer such funding. It has added substantially to that fund, with the result that the number of people in arrears is fairly small, and I hope that we will have no evictions. I would like to hear the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds), who will speak for the Labour party, pledge that the Labour Government in Wales will have a “no evictions” policy. Local authorities and housing associations are doing their best; it is time for other people to step up to the plate.

3.31 pm

Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Riordan. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) on securing this most important debate and on her fantastic speech.

A senior officer from one of my social housing providers has said:

“It is as if the Government was following a blueprint of how to ruin social housing within 5 short years.”

Let me give the background to why she said that. Since April, Bolton at Home has had arrears of £200,000. Many people are only partially paying their rent, and 9% of those in debt have arrears of more than £600. Bolton at Home is about to take 25 cases to court because of arrears due solely to the bedroom tax. Wigan and Leigh Housing has arrears of £650,000 and the number of people in debt has nearly doubled to 11,500, so it has revised its income rate to 96% of the amount it should get.

There are knock-on effects on costs. Providers now have to deal with an increased number of calls to the call centre and to employ more people to collect rents. There are increasing court costs, and many other costs besides. All providers are finding it harder to let three-bedroom houses, and have had to increase the number of void days on which they do not collect rent, which again costs them dear.

The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Wirral West (Esther McVey), has told social housing providers to knock down three-bedroom houses and build something suitable. I would question her reasoning in the first place, but where are they supposed to find the money to alter houses or to build new ones when they are losing so much money because of the policy?

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If the policy is so successful, why have the Government recently increased the discretionary housing payment pot by millions? Welcome though that is, it demonstrates how the policy is just not working. It is ill thought out, and in areas such as mine the majority of the housing stock is three-bedroom, so it will do nothing to alleviate overcrowding. It hinders the building of new homes and simply places people in abject poverty.

Behind housing providers’ problems are real-life difficulties for real people. Most of us would think that people with two children would be suitably housed in a three-bedroom house, but sadly not this Government. Indeed, the Secretary of State for Education clearly agrees with me, because he thinks that every pupil should have a bedroom in which to do their homework. He should speak to colleagues in other Departments who think it entirely appropriate for a 15-year-old studying for their GCSEs to share their bedroom with a crying toddler, or for children to have their education disrupted when their parents are forced to move home—not once, but several times—when they or their siblings reach a milestone age at which the family’s accommodation is deemed unsuitable.

Stephen Doughty: My hon. Friend is describing a common circumstance, certainly from the stories I hear from my constituents. Does she agree that the cumulative impact—the stresses caused by high energy prices, the bedroom tax and all these things coming together, particularly for disabled and vulnerable people—is causing pain and distress to many of our constituents?

Julie Hilling: My hon. Friend’s intervention leads me nicely to a study by York university and the Northern Housing Consortium, “Real Life Reform”, which states:

“Households are surviving on restricted budgets and struggling to get by. 65% have less than £10 per week to live on following rent and essentials such as food and bills. 37% have nothing left each week. Households are intending to cut back spending on food and fuel. 25% spend less than £20 per week on food. Eight out of ten households are already in debt and 83% are worried about getting into more debt. Over half of those in debt doubt they’ll ever be able to clear these debts… Households are reporting increases in levels of stress and depression. 88% of households are worried welfare changes will impact on their health and wellbeing. Parents report they are going without to protect their children’s health.”

That is a story of absolute misery.

I want to tell a story about two of my constituents, whom I will call Mr and Mrs Smith to protect their identity. Mrs Smith came to see me at my surgery because she was absolutely desperate. She came with her mother, but actually looked older than her mother because of the worry and stress she was going through. Her husband is desperately ill, having had a double lung transplant. Sadly, he is unlikely to survive. He needs apparatus to help him to breathe, so there is no way she can share a bedroom with him. The box room is full of oxygen tanks, and the fire brigade has said that no one can sleep in a room with oxygen tanks, because of the risks.

Mr Smith sleeps in one room, Mrs Smith sleeps in another—she cannot sleep with him because of the apparatus and the noise it makes—and oxygen tanks and other equipment occupy the box room, but they are

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deemed to be under-occupied by two rooms. That is absolute nonsense. They cannot get discretionary housing payments, because he gets disability living allowance, which just enables them to get about and to lead as normal a life as possible, bringing them up to other people’s income. The DLA is taken into account, which puts them over the rate at which they would qualify. Does the Minister think it right that DLA is taken into account? If not, will he do something to change that?

I will finish with a quote from another of my housing providers:

“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a policy applied retrospectively. We are used to managing change, but not when the goalposts are moved overnight.”

The policy is cruel and heartless. It will not achieve the savings predicted by the Government. It will not allow the building of new homes and it is causing untold misery. I wish the Government would rethink: do as the Labour party says and abandon this cruel, heartless tax now.

3.37 pm

Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Riordan. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) on securing this incredibly important debate and on her outstanding contribution. Many passionate speeches have been made by my hon. Friends, but there is a notable absence of Conservative and Liberal Democrat Members, and we have not yet heard a single speech from Government Members. I welcome the Minister and congratulate him on his appointment. This is, I am sure, the first of many occasions on which we shall debate housing.

The truth is that there is a chronic shortage of homes in our country, and we are building fewer than half the number we need to keep up with demand. Not only is the bedroom tax cruel and unfair, but it is exacerbating the housing crisis that we face. The Government are in denial not only about the effect of the bedroom tax, but about the scale of the housing crisis. Two weeks ago, in his first media appearance, the Minister, who has responsibility for housing, denied on “Channel 4 News” that there is a housing crisis, yet the very next day, the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles), who has responsibility for planning, said in Westminster Hall that there is a housing crisis and that it is particularly intense in some parts of the country, including pockets of Yorkshire, which is where the Minister’s constituency is. People often say that Departments work in silos, but it is quite incredible to have a division of opinion within one Department—the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The chronic housing shortage is clear for all to see and the Government are presiding over the lowest level of house building since the 1920s. As soon as they took office, they cut the affordable homes budget by 60%. Home ownership is falling and private rents are soaring. Five million people are on the waiting list for social housing, and homelessness and rough sleeping have both risen by more than a third since the general election. The reality is that the bedroom tax is making the housing crisis worse, not better.

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The Government continue to maintain that the bedroom tax is about tackling overcrowding, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore) has said, the tax is not about making the best use of the social housing stock; it is about saving money, and it is questionable whether it will do that. Indeed, it is making the poorest people across our country even poorer and costing an average family £720 a year. On the same day that the tax came into force, every millionaire in the country got an average tax cut of more than a hundred grand.

Two-thirds of those hit by the bedroom tax are disabled. Some 220,000 are families with children, and many tenants want to move but simply cannot find a suitable property to move to. My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) said that in her constituency much of the housing stock is three-bedroom properties, which is the case in other parts of the country, including my own constituency.

The bedroom tax is also hitting housing supply. As many of my hon. Friends have underlined, local authorities are suffering. Areas such as Wolverhampton, Nottingham and elsewhere have to put money into helplines to ensure that people are not left without housing. The tax is also having an impact on affordable housing budgets, particularly for housing associations. A survey by the National Housing Federation found that a quarter of households affected have fallen behind in their rent for the first time ever. Such arrears have major consequences for house building, too, and they are jeopardising the ability of housing associations to borrow, plan for the future and, ultimately, build more homes.

I have a number of questions to which I would like the Minister to respond. In particular, what assessment has his Department made of the rent arrears for councils and housing associations and of the impact that those arrears are having on their ability to build the affordable homes that we so desperately need? How many homes are standing empty across the country because of this failed policy, and how many councils have received permission from the Minister’s Department to draw money from the housing revenue account to protect the most vulnerable? I understand why they want to protect the most vulnerable from the impact of the policy, but, as several of my hon. Friends have said, that is having an impact on the money that they are able to spend on repairs and new homes.

The bedroom tax is cruel and unfair, and it simply is not working. The Labour party has pledged to scrap it. Far from tackling overcrowding, the bedroom tax is exacerbating the biggest housing crisis in a generation—a housing crisis that the new Minister says does not exist. We beg to differ. Perhaps the Government want to forget that they are presiding over the lowest level of house building since the 1920s.

The Labour party is determined to get a grip on the issue. The bedroom tax is having a negative impact not only on the poorest in our society, but on the number of houses being built.

Hywel Williams rose—

Emma Reynolds: I am nearly out of time.

We want to get Britain building again and have pledged that, by the end of the next Parliament, we will double house building. Something radical needs to change

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in this Government’s policy. They need to get a grip not only on the implications of the bedroom tax for the most vulnerable and poorest people in our country, but on its impact on housing supply. I hope that they also get a grip on the housing crisis that is affecting families in my constituency and across the country.

3.44 pm

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Kris Hopkins): What a pleasure and privilege it is, Mrs Riordan, to serve for the first time under the chairmanship of a fellow Yorkshire MP. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) on securing this important debate and on the passion with which she delivered it. We may not agree on some of the points, but I know how sincerely she presented her case, and I appreciate that.

The hon. Lady raised two constituency issues relating to Ashley, who is disabled. If she will write to me about them, I will attempt to give her a formal and proper response, rather than just having a discussion across the Chamber. She talked about the 1 million new houses that the Labour party proposes to build. I presume that the money will come out of bankers’ bonuses at some point. I realise that after some 13 years in government and the many decades since Macmillan was in power, we have never actually hit the figure of 240,000 houses. I am not sure how Labour will pay for them. Perhaps we have a common aspiration to deliver that number of houses during the period when we are in government.

Emma Reynolds: Will the Minister admit that, in terms of completions, the Government have done a very poor job? Since the Government came to power, housing completions have been at their lowest since the 1920s—only 107,000 properties in 2010-11. That is simply not good enough. In our period in office, in 2007-08, we hit 170,000 properties, and we have said that we will aim to build more than 200,000 a year by 2020. That is a realistic objective.

Kris Hopkins: Let me say that Labour presided over a period of massive boom, yet it still managed to secure fewer affordable houses by the end of that period—420,000 houses. I appreciate the aspiration, but now I want to make some further comments and respond to the Members who have spoken.

The hon. Members for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore), for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie) and for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds) talked about arrears. That is a matter that we are watching and we are keen to understand the consequences of the new system. A review will be published next spring that will help us in that regard.

The hon. Members for Edinburgh East jested about portaloos and outside toilets. In the lead-up to the 2010 general election, I visited a house with an outside toilet. They are not a fantasy, or even an issue to jest about; they exist. Some of the housing stock out there is appalling, which leads me to the meat of my speech.

Sheila Gilmore: Will the Minister clarify whether some of the worst housing is in the private rented sector? As far as I am aware, in my city and throughout Scotland, no homes in the housing association and council sector have outside toilets.

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Kris Hopkins: The hon. Lady is right. The house that I was talking about was in the private sector. In my period in local government, the housing stock in my city was absolutely appalling. The then Government rightly wanted to intervene, but the then Labour-led council refused to support such intervention. The idea that—[Interruption.] I want to conclude this section and move on to the rest of my speech. It is being suggested that we had a utopian social housing model before 2010 and then somehow we made a transition to an uncaring world, where no one cares about social housing. Let me tell Members that my parents were brought up in a council house. I lived in a council house and I care about those individuals. I want to talk about—[Interruption.] I will continue, because we do not have much time.

I will make one final point on the interventions and the comments that were made. The hon. Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) talked about Mr and Mrs Smith, and I understand why she talked about people in that anonymous way. Again, I say to her that if there is anything I can do to respond to the concerns of those individuals, I will do so. I would be grateful if she wrote to me, and I would seek to get an appropriate response.

Hywel Williams: I refer back to a point that the Minister made earlier when he referred to research into the charge, to understand what has happened. Will he concede that the usual progress of social policy is that there is research first, then planning, then implementation and then a review? That is the usual way that it is done.

Kris Hopkins: There was a significant amount of research into the whole issue of welfare reform, which was debated at length, so I do not think that anyone came to this view without understanding the issue. However, we can only evaluate a process after it has been in place.

Hywel Williams: Will the Minister give way on that point?

Kris Hopkins: No, I will carry on, because I want to make some progress.

I will just pick up on a point made by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East, who said that I had said that there was no crisis. Just to provide some clarification and so that this myth does not continue, I will say that I was asked about a housing bubble in London and whether or not there was a crisis, and there is not. I actually used the backing of the Governor of the Bank of England, who says there is no housing bubble, and that was what I was specifically referring to. Also, the Chancellor has put in place the means to intervene on any of the measures that we have in place, through the Financial Policy Committee; if a bubble was emerging, he could intervene at that point.

An issue that has come out in the debate is the comparison between, “We’ve said it’s about saving money,” and, “You’re saying now it’s about supply.” There is a need to save money. We inherited a bill that had doubled to some £24 billion by the time we came to power, and it was important that we addressed it because we ended up with a deficit where we were spending—in fact,

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despite a reduction of a third, we are still paying £120 million a day in interest and we have a responsibility to address that.

Kate Green: Will the Minister give way?

Kris Hopkins: I am sorry, but I will not give way.

Despite the fact that we have this huge deficit, we wanted to ensure that the burden that was placed on this sector was as small as possible. In fact, it is 0.3% of the deficit reduction strategy that was put in place.

Answering the question about supply, the Government have already delivered 334,000 houses; we have made a commitment of £20 billion to deliver 170,000 houses before the end of this financial spending period; and we have made further commitments of £23 billion to deliver another 165,000 affordable houses. So I am afraid that the idea that money is not being raised or that councils or housing associations do not have the ability to deliver affordable housing is false. Despite the limited resources that are available, the Government have been absolutely committed to delivering affordable housing, and we will continue to deliver it.

Rather than talking about imaginary numbers of a billion houses over the next period, let me say that Labour clearly failed to deliver in a time of boom. For a period of 13 years—it was 11 years of boom— Labour failed to hit the target that it was talking about. And it has not said how it would fund its plan to address this issue.

On the ground out there at the moment, there is real growth in supply. The construction industry is running at a six-year high; the construction sector has said that it has had a higher expansion in the past six months than it has had for some time; and most of that construction growth is from housing. So the supply issue is being addressed by Britain getting out and building, and we have resourced that.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply has said that we are experiencing the highest rate of building for a decade and that housing supply is now at its highest since the end of the unsustainable housing boom of 2008. As I said, some 334,000 houses have been built.

Emma Reynolds: On what figures does the Minister base the statement that he has just made, because even if we look at starts and completions, it simply cannot be the case that this Government have done better than the previous Government? We built more than 2 million homes and 500,000 of them were affordable. He keeps talking about 300,000 houses, but that is over three years. That is an abysmal record, and he needs to face up to it.

Kris Hopkins: First, I made the point that Labour was building in a period of boom and still managed to reduce the number of affordable houses by 420,000 and that, in a very difficult period, we have grown the number of affordable houses and we have delivered them. We said that we would deliver 170,000 houses on the basis of a public and private investment of £19.5 billion. We have already delivered 84,000 houses, and as I said before, we intend to go up to 2018 with a further investment of £23 billion, which will deliver another 160,000 affordable houses.

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Hywel Williams: I am very grateful to the Minister for giving way again; he is so generous. I wish to make a genuine inquiry. Will he congratulate the Labour Government in Cardiff on their success in house building, and even possibly the Scottish National party Government in Edinburgh as well?

Kris Hopkins: I have great passion for those two areas of our wonderful country, but I cannot bring myself to congratulate those two Governments.

Dr Whiteford: The Minister may not be aware that the Scottish Government have taken on a very ambitious programme of house building in Scotland that far exceeds anything that went before in the devolution era. However, the private sector housing that is coming on stream is significantly more expensive than the housing that people are currently living in, so I do not believe that the policy that we are discussing today is saving any money. I hope that he will be able to say categorically today that it is saving housing benefit costs.

Kris Hopkins: What I will say is that, in my early days in this post, I assure the hon. Lady that if I can learn anything about building more houses, because that is really important to the economy of our country, I shall inquire—

Mr McKenzie: Will the Minister give way?

Kris Hopkins: No, I will not give way. In fact, I will give way in a second or two, but not just at the moment.

I reiterate that we recognise that this is about reducing the burden on the Government and the amount of debt

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that we have in place. It is important that we do that. We cannot continue to subsidise a million spare rooms. It is important that people out there—the taxpayers out there—understand that everybody is absolutely making a contribution to this process.

I feel extremely uncomfortable that people are turning around and saying that this is an uncaring and—[Interruption.] What I can say is that I know my commitment to addressing the number of houses that we have out there and to ensuring people out there have access to affordable housing.

Ian Lavery: The Minister is saying that the Government are not uncaring. If they are attacking 400,000 disabled people, by reducing their benefit when they have nowhere else to go, how is that caring?

Kris Hopkins: In any transition from one state to another, we need to take responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient resources to make that transition happen. That is why, despite the difficult financial circumstances that we find ourselves in, we have invested some £405 million, including £25 million of discretionary payments to disabled people, to make that transition right.

With the process that we have gone through, what is important is that we understand the issues involved—I particularly want to understand the issues about arrears—and make sure that we are building the supply of houses and continuing to grow it. When the opportunity comes to understand further, when the interim report is published in April next year, I hope that we will be able to address many of the issues that Members have raised in Westminster Hall today.

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NHS Funding (North-East and Teesside)

3.59 pm

Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab): This is an important opportunity to discuss concerns that my north-east colleagues and I have. I hope that the Minister takes our points on board, and takes the necessary steps to rectify the issues in the region’s health service.

I will discuss four topics this afternoon. The first is the funding provided by central Government to the region’s accident and emergency departments, particularly in the south Tees area. The second is the funding of the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, and the rising use and cost of private ambulances. The third is the ongoing Monitor investigations into the two foundation trusts—the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust—that serve my constituents. Finally, I will seek reassurance from the Minister on future funding allocations to north-east clinical commissioning groups.

Over the past 18 months, the accident and emergency department at James Cook university hospital, which serves my constituency, has come under particular pressure. In the run-up to winter last year, there were problems with handover times; ambulances and paramedics waited up to two and a half hours to admit patients, despite the national target time being 15 minutes. I raised that last year with the Secretary of State for Health, who agreed that the situation was completely unacceptable, and I raised it with the Minister on 13 February 2013 in a Westminster Hall debate on A and E provision in the north-east. In addition to the issues that I raised with the Secretary of State, it has become evident that the James Cook hospital’s A and E department struggled to manage with the pressure caused by winter.

In January and February 2013, the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust failed to meet its target of seeing 95% of A and E patients within four hours. With James Cook hospital so clearly overstretched, I admit that I was surprised to discover in September 2013 that the Secretary of State decided not to award it, or any hospital trust in the north-east, funding to alleviate the pressure on A and E departments. It is beyond belief that, of the £250 million awarded by the Secretary of State between 53 trusts, not a penny will reach the north-east, particularly as we live in a region that suffers from some of England’s harshest winter weather and has some of the harshest local government cuts in the country. I hope that the Minister reconsiders that allocation, or at the very least clarifies why the Secretary of State made such a seemingly absurd and regionally disparate decision.

Recurrently, over many weeks, I have received expressions of concern from constituents about the increasing use of private ambulances in response to 999 calls in my constituency. I corresponded with the North East Ambulance Service on two such incidents, and its reply made it clear that central Government funding cuts are eroding that blue-light service:

“Each year we have discussions with our commissioners on the forecast number of incidents in the forthcoming year. The outcome of these discussions for 2013-14 were that commissioners felt it necessary to set our income on activity for the next 12 months at a

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level less than we were forecasting… So for 2013-14, we have been contracted to respond to 376,000 incidents, although we are forecasting activity at an estimated 415,000. This means that any incidents above 376,000 will be funded on a one-off basis rather than as recurrent annual income. These arrangements do not allow us to enhance our own workforce plan because the money for the additional activity will not be available next year to fund the extra salaries, overheads and vehicles we need to meet the extra demand.”

Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD): The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful speech. Is he aware that Cleveland police vehicles and staff are also being increasingly used as unofficial ambulances?

Tom Blenkinsop: Yes, the police, and particularly the police and crime commissioner for Cleveland, have raised that with me in private meetings on first responder calls. They have funding worries about what will happen if such practices continually recur.

The NEAS letter shows that there will be more cuts, more private ambulances and possibly a less responsive service. It is not me saying that, but the chief operating officer of the North East Ambulance Service. The figures are stark. In 2008-09, 865 call-outs were attended by private ambulances in our region, costing £86,000. In 2009-10, some 1,816 call-outs were attended by private ambulances, costing £151,000. In 2010-11, however, 6,429 call-outs were attended by private ambulances, costing £477,000, which is a huge jump. In 2011-12, there were 9,000 call-outs attended by private ambulances, costing £639,000. In 2012-13, 13,524 call-outs were attended by private ambulances, costing £754,000. So since 2010, there has been a fivefold increase in private ambulance costs in the north-east, with the funds going to private contract firms. It is obvious that from 2010 onwards, there has been an explosion of private ambulance usage by the trust, costing a huge amount of taxpayers’ funds. The chief executive states:

“These arrangements do not allow us to enhance our own workforce plan because the money for the additional activity will not be available next year to fund the extra salaries, overheads and vehicles we need to meet the extra demand.”

A third issue of particular concern to my constituents is that both the NHS trusts that serve them—the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust—have found themselves under investigation by Monitor in the past 12 months. Since May 2010, the South Tees trust has failed on seven occasions to meet its referral-to-treatment target, most recently between March and August. That has resulted in the Monitor investigation, because the trust has failed to ensure that 90% of patients commence treatment within 18 weeks of referral. Furthermore, there has been an increase in reported “never” events at the trust, and an increase in the incidence of clostridium difficile.

Despite the seriousness of those issues, Health Ministers have taken no action. My constituents would at the very least expect Ministers to have had conversations with Monitor and the trust on the issue, and on what support the Department of Health can provide, yet the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison), confirmed to me in a written answer that

“No such discussions have taken place with Ministers.”—[Official Report, 22 October 2013; Vol. 569, c. 83W.]

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Will the Minister please assure me that he will closely monitor the situation and have discussions with both Monitor and the South Tees trust on how the Department can provide support, including additional funding if necessary?

My final point is on allocations to the north-east’s clinical commissioning groups.

A recent working paper issued by NHS England on allocation and indicative target allocation outlines proposals that will reduce per-capita funding for CCGs across the north-east. People in Sunderland will each face a £146 cut, people in south Tyneside a £124 cut, people in Gateshead a £104 cut, and people in my constituency a £60 cut.

Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab): Is it not perverse that deprivation and health inequality indicators are not part of the overall calculation, as regards the funding allocation for the north-east? That will potentially result in the north-east losing up to £230 million of NHS funding per annum.

Tom Blenkinsop: Yes, the cumulative effect of all the funding allocations in different areas is very worrying. If those allocations are all reduced, my genuine worry for my constituents, and for constituents across the north-east, is that all the hard work and financial effort in Teesside in the past 15 years to reduce cardiac risk, bad outcomes for cancer, and other problems will be undermined, and we will not build on the momentum gathered over the past 15 years.

Mr Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East) (Lab): Is that not all the more outrageous because a former Health Minister, the right hon. Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns), gave a clear assurance at Health Question Time on the Floor of the House that the importance of the deprivation part of the calculation would not be downgraded? We asked for a clear assurance, and we were given a clear assurance. That assurance is not compatible with the current consultation.

Tom Blenkinsop: My right hon. Friend predicts the final part of my speech. I hope the Minister will take the opportunity to put our fears to rest. Unfortunately, the information that I have received to date does not reassure me.

Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab): I compliment my hon. Friend on securing such a timely and important debate. I completely agree that one of the most worrying aspects is the potential changes to the funding of clinical commissioning groups. Easington would lose £62 a head. Does he agree that that could be seen as political gerrymandering, with the poorest areas deprived of funding and the wealthiest, such as east Hampshire, getting increases of as much as £164 a head? The areas with the best health outcomes will get the biggest increases in resources.

Tom Blenkinsop: My hon. Friend has mentioned that in Health questions and in the Select Committee on Health, of which he is a doughty member who provides a lot of input. Someone from a poorer socio-economic background has a lower likelihood of reaching the age at which they would receive more funds under the

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allocation—it would probably never happen. This becomes a self-defeating, vicious circle of a lack of investment in people who might need it the most.

As I was saying, the proposals in a recent working paper issued by NHS England on the allocation and the indicative target allocation would have led to a per capita reduction in funding for CCGs throughout the north-east, and my constituents would have lost out. Meanwhile, CCGs in the south would have had a per capita increase; for example, those covered by Coastal West Sussex CCG would each gain £115, those in Hailsham £136, and those covered by South Eastern Hampshire CCG £164. That is clearly not a one-nation NHS. I received ministerial assurances that that formula was not ultimately used for 2013-14, but a response to a parliamentary question that I asked confirmed that

“No proposals or decisions regarding allocations for 2014-15 have yet been made.”—[Official Report, 22 October 2013; Vol. 569, c. 76W.]

The hon. Member for Stockton South (James Wharton), who is in the Chamber, told the Evening Gazette on 23 October that it was indeed “right” that NHS England was considering reducing health funding for his constituents and the north-east, but—

James Wharton (Stockton South) (Con): The hon. Gentleman has either misread or misremembered, or perhaps the EveningGazette did not give a full account of my comments. What I said was right was having an independent funding body that makes decisions based on a formula that is consulted on, and it is right that age should be a factor. That does not mean that deprivation should not be a factor. I recognise and welcome the debate, and the effort that hon. Members in all parties are making to put the case that deprivation has an impact on health outcomes and should be considered as part of the funding formula. I recognise, however, the independence of NHS England, and I support it being an independent body. Does he recognise its independence?

Tom Blenkinsop: I recognise the health outcomes and needs of my local constituents; as their representative, I will voice those views and needs vociferously. I take on board, however, the hon. Gentleman’s comments and his desire to see deprivation recognised in the allocation of funds. On the future allocation for CCGs, I hope that he will advocate to the Minister on behalf of those of his constituents who share the same socio-economic background as me, in the way that we Labour Members do. I take his intervention in favour of those funds in a spirit of common north-eastern friendship.

Will the Minister assure us that he will urge NHS England to consider deprivation and regional health inequalities when determining funding formulae? Furthermore, will he guarantee that any funding formula used to determine allocations in 2014-15 will not leave the north-east comparatively worse off, and will not widen the north-south health divide? I thank the Minister for his time, and I hope that he will be able to provide the clarifications and assurances that my colleagues and I have sought this afternoon.

4.13 pm

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter): It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Riordan.

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A lot of political smoke has been blown across the Chamber today by the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop). I have a lot of time for him personally, and he came to see me earlier in the year to express some legitimate concerns about the performance of his local trust. On the basis of our meetings, I hope to reassure him that there has been considerable progress locally in his area.

More broadly, it is worth setting the record straight on some of the points made today. We have had discussion about the ambulance service, which I will come to, and we have talked about winter pressures, which I will address. First, however, on the funding formula, my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South (James Wharton) was right to point out that it is set independently of the Government. Before we handed independent formula setting to NHS England, the Government made it clear that deprivation is a factor and it is taken into account in the current arrangements. There is a 10% weighting for deprivation in the funding formula, which as a Government we ensured was preserved in the formula. Under the new arrangements, there is more political independence in setting the funding formula.

Grahame M. Morris: Will the Minister give way?

Dr Poulter: Not at the moment. The independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, or ACRA, as hon. Members have mentioned in the debate, historically has advised that the funding formula should be readjusted to take into account demographics and the increased health care needs of older populations in other parts of the country. The Government, however, in the past chose to maintain support for deprivation as a factor in health care funding, but the decision is now not one for the Government. It is now for NHS England to listen to the independent advice, but I would find it strange were there a sudden change in the funding formula that did not factor in deprivation, as done in the past.

It is important to set the record straight. The decision is not political; in the past, the Government preserved a weighting for deprivation, but now the decision will be taken separately by NHS England. Its decision will be made on the basis of clinical need, although of course deprivation will be a factor.

Mr Nicholas Brown: I asked the Minister’s predecessor for a clear assurance that he would not downgrade the importance of economic deprivation in his resource allocation formula. The Minister’s predecessor, once he had consulted the Secretary of State at Health questions, then said:

“Yes, I can give that assurance.”—[Official Report, 12 June 2012; Vol. 546, c. 167.]

It is impossible to misunderstand what was being said. What weight can we put on that now?

Dr Poulter: My predecessor was in place when setting the resource allocation was in the Government’s gift. As the then Minister made it clear, a weighting in the formula for deprivation would be preserved—he stood by his word and that weighting was preserved. NHS England, not the Government, now sets the funding

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formula—to avoid political interference—and those in NHS England, in conversation, have made it clear that they also value a weighting apportioned to deprivation.

Grahame M. Morris: Will the Minister give way?

Dr Poulter: No, I will not give way. I have said things clearly for the record, without any political smoke.

As a Government, when we had control of the funding formula, we clearly put in a weighting for deprivation and for some of the poorest communities. I am proud that we did so, but it is now for an independent body to look at the case and at the independent advice that it has been given. I would find it extraordinary, however, if it were not to factor deprivation into its decision making, although there are other factors that it will want to put into the equation, such as the fact that older people are the greatest users of health care, so places with lots of older people also need to be recognised. A number of factors will be taken into consideration, and deprivation will be one of them. I have been reassuring about that, and I will not allow the Labour party or any hon. Member to make mischief with something that the Government have stood by.

Ian Lavery: Will the Minister give way?

Dr Poulter: No, I will not give way any more. I have clarified the point considerably, and the hon. Gentleman would do well to listen. I will not allow the Labour party to make political mischief, when my party has made it clear that we value the deprivation weighting. In fact, if we look at the public health allocations to every local authority, they have been generous. As I hope to reassure hon. Members, we can see that the health care funding allocations to the north-east have also increased under this Government, so the assertion that funding to the north-east is being reduced is clearly not the case.

The Government have increased the NHS budget, which the shadow Secretary of State described as “irresponsible”. At the same time, the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government have cut the budget by more than 8%; in England, however, we have ensured that we have increased the health care budget in real terms. In the north-east specifically, CCGs have received an above-real-terms increase in funding for 2013-14 of 2.3%, compared with the primary care trusts’ funding for the equivalent set of services last year. Opposition Members should be pleased about increases in funding for the north-east, because if the Opposition spokesman were Secretary of State at the moment, he would have considered that irresponsible.

Ian Lavery: If the proposals in the consultation document had been implemented this year, can the Minister confirm that the north-east would have lost out to the tune of a little more than £228 million?

Dr Poulter: The hon. Gentleman is right in saying that had the Government followed the advice of the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation in the past, we would potentially have cut the budget for the north-east. I can reassure him that we maintained the resource allocation budget, and the north-east has received an increase in real terms. Those are the facts.

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He may want to create political smoke, but there is none. We preserved and increased funding to the north-east for patients in Opposition Members’ constituencies and in those of my hon. Friends.

Mr Nicholas Brown: Will the Minister give way?

Dr Poulter: I will not give way again.

The hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland is being very disingenuous in the points that he is making, and I have put the record straight: health care funding has increased under the present Government. If I give way again, perhaps he will explain why the shadow Secretary of State said it would be irresponsible to increase the health care budget in real terms. We all think that would be irresponsible in the current environment.

I turn to local services in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. When we discussed the matter earlier this year, he raised specific concerns about Guisborough, East Cleveland and Redcar hospitals. He did not put on the record the fact that matters have improved considerably since that meeting with me and local commissioners. Guisborough urgent care centre is open from 9 to 5 on Mondays to Fridays and from 8 to 8 at weekends. East Cleveland urgent care centre is open from 9 to 5 on Mondays to Fridays and from 8 to 8 at weekends, and Redcar urgent care centre is open 24/7. There are currently no vacancies for clinical staff that affect opening hours, which have been aligned to match service and patient need. The centres will continue to evaluate the situation.

It is worth highlighting that three additional nurses were recruited to support the urgent care centres in June 2013, and they are now at full complement, apart from one vacant clinical lead post to which the trust is continuing to try to recruit. It is looking at better ways to manage staffing. In response to concerns raised by the hon. Gentleman, there are now fully functioning urgent care centres. There is a 24/7 service in Redcar and additional staff working at those centres. That is good progress and it is disingenuous of him to suggest otherwise.

Tom Blenkinsop rose—

Dr Poulter: I hope that when I give way, the hon. Gentleman will put on the record the fact that considerable progress has been made by local commissioners for the benefit of local patients.

Tom Blenkinsop: I thank the Minister for giving way during a response to a speech I made in February, although I deliberately did not mention those points because they were not part of what I wanted to talk about today. The Minister says that South Tees NHS trust is successful, so why is it under investigation by Monitor?

Dr Poulter: The hon. Gentleman has raised issues of health care funding, and I am making the point that there has been considerable investment in local health care services, the very services that he said earlier this year had received no investment. He is also raising urgent care services and other services at his local hospital trust. I am reassuring him that considerable investment has been made locally, and it is worth

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highlighting the fact that further investment has been made. He is incredibly disingenuous to stand here and run down his local health service when considerable steps have been made to improve patient care services. For his benefit, I will outline a few more improvements that have been made, so that they are firmly on the record.

Tom Blenkinsop: Will the Minister give way?

Dr Poulter: I will not give way because the hon. Gentleman should listen to the answers to some of his questions and realise that his local health care services are improving thanks to the Government’s increased investment in the health service—[Interruption.]Hon. Members have been incredibly political in everything they have said today, and I am putting answers on the record. If the hon. Gentleman does not want to hear them, he should not have raised the debate.

The latest data for 27 October 2013 show that South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s performance against the 95% standard for A and E waits is 96.8%. Over the last 23 weeks, it has met the national 95% target for A and E four-hour waits. The local trust is performing very well in treating patients in a timely way when they arrive at A and E. That is contrary to the points that the hon. Gentleman was trying to make.

At James Cook university hospital, the acute admissions unit is adjacent to the A and E department, so enabling the trust better to manage the flow of patients and to ease pressure on A and E. The trust has recruited two additional consultants and six additional junior doctors to the acute medicine departments, so easing pressure on the A and E department. Considerable investment is being made, and additional nursing staff have been recruited to support 50 more acute hospital beds that will be in place this winter. The hon. Gentleman must be aware that there is a lot of investment locally, with more beds, more staff and better care. It is a pity that he could not acknowledge that in his speech. I am putting it on the record, so that his constituents are aware of it.

Grahame M. Morris: The Secretary of State announced an additional £250 million to relieve pressure on A and E, but none of it was allocated to any of the hospitals in the constituencies of my right hon. and hon. Friends here.

On the incidence of ill health in deprived areas, half of the people presenting to hospitals suffering from hepatitis C, which is completely treatable and curable, come from the poorest 20% and three quarters come from the poorest 40%. Is it not right that additional resources are provided to those poorest areas to tackle such diseases?

Dr Poulter: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and that is why the Government have given local authorities the power to deal with sexual health services. He will be aware that a major cause of hepatitis C—for the record, it is not curable—

Grahame M. Morris: It is treatable.

Dr Poulter: Indeed, but it is not curable as the hon. Gentleman stated. He should get his facts right before making statements in the Chamber. It is not curable,

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but it is treatable and the best treatment is prevention, which is why we have given a considerable amount of money to local authorities to take on the public health responsibility and to ensure that local authorities are in the right place to look at primary prevention of transmissible sexual diseases. He will be aware that hepatitis C is sometimes transmitted via the sexual route. The Government have put us in a better place to deal with sexual health issues and to tackle them in future.

There has been talk about ambulances, and it is worth highlighting that the most recent data, for September 2013, show that the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is meeting the category A8 red 1 measure 80.6% of the time and the A8 red 2 measure 80.8% of the time against an operational standard of 75%. The ambulance service is doing marvellously well in the north-east. It is meeting category B19 with a performance of 97.7% against an operational standard of 95%. That is a good performance in the north-east by anyone’s standard. The ambulance service is performing very well. Other ambulance services that may receive more generous funding are struggling, sometimes due to mismanagement, particularly in my part of the country in eastern England.

It is very difficult for the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland to make any case for lack of funding or other problems with his ambulance service when health care funding for the north-east is going up under this Government and the ambulance service is performing well according to national performance indicators. Those are the facts, and if he did not want them on the record, he should not have raised the debate.

It is more in sorrow than anger that I make those points. When the hon. Gentleman and I had a constructive meeting earlier this year to discuss local health care services, there was not the political smoke or the chorus backing him that there has been in this debate. Genuine issues were raised about his local health care service, and he and I, with local commissioners, worked to put improvements in place. As a result of that meeting, there are more staff, more winter beds and more investment in his local trust. The local community hospitals that he was so concerned about are in a much better place.

I am sure the hon. Gentleman will come back to me if further issues arise, but his part of the country is much better placed than many others to deal with the pressures of winter. He should be proud of that, and I hope he will take the opportunity after this debate to champion his local NHS and the good work at local level by front-line staff who are delivering improvements. I hope he will take that opportunity and that we will not have to come back here and listen to him running down his local health services.

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The Maldives

4.30 pm

Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Riordan. I welcome the Minister to his place, and thank him very much for the interest that he has shown in this subject ever since he took up his post.

I start by putting on record my interest in the Maldives. Before coming to this place, I was a political consultant with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. The Maldives was just one of the places that I visited, but it is very close to my heart. Before 2008, a dictatorship was in place there. It was a country that lived without democracy, and where people were in prison for their political views. There was widespread brutality and many innocent people, including many young men and women, were in prison because they dared to suggest democracy.

I first visited in 2008 to help the Maldivian Democratic party run a campaign akin to those that we run and take for granted here in Britain. I joined my colleague James McGrath, who has recently been elected to the Australian Senate. We went to help, and it was very humbling when we arrived to see the hope and dedication that that party has—and still has, despite everything that has been thrown at its members over many years. They are, without a doubt, some of the most courageous people that I have ever met.

The MDP is led by Mohamed Nasheed, who is known as Anni. He is the same age as me, but it is almost unbelievable how much he has suffered over the years. He is one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. He is a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, who has spent great periods of his life in jail and has been beaten and tortured, but who does not give up on his dream of fair and free elections. He is a man of great principle and he is a great leader.

During those elections in 2008, I travelled with Anni to many islands, taught the MDP about running elections and met so many people who had extraordinary stories to tell. Dreams do come true: Anni and the MDP won that election with 54% of the vote. Democracy had won the day, and Anni, the former prisoner, was the first ever democratically elected leader in the Maldives. I returned to Redditch the day before the elections and could not believe that he won so comprehensively, by such a large margin. I received a text from the editor of the local newspaper, who said:

“So many thoughts about the families that have suffered over the last 30 years. My eyes are swelling with tears every now and then. It is over Karen. It is really over. We can live in a country free from fear. People are crying thank you so much.”

However, it was not over—not by a long way. In fact, it was just starting.

Anni had promised to reform his country, and he spent the next three years doing just that. He provided better health care, reformed transport and looked after the elderly, which was everything that he had promised to do, but it was not enough. When the old President left office, he left Anni with some of his most favoured judges. He left a constitutional time bomb for Anni, and on 7 February 2012, it went off.

I woke to the shocking news that Anni had resigned, that the vice-president had taken over, and that it was all above board. For those of us who knew Anni, that

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could not be right. To this day, I believe that there was a coup in the Maldives, and that Anni Nasheed was forced to resign at gunpoint. There were riots all over Male, many of my friends were beaten and tortured, and there were dreadful breaches of human rights.

Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing the matter to the Chamber for consideration. In terms of human rights, is she aware that every person, no matter what their religious background, has to be a Muslim in the Maldives? They cannot be an evangelical Protestant or a Roman Catholic—that is not allowed. Does she feel that the human rights of Christians are violated there?

Karen Lumley: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, but most people in the Maldives are happy to be Muslims and want to be Muslims. They are quite relaxed about that. Actually, one thing that I was accused of when I was there was trying to convert people to Christianity, which I obviously was not trying to do.

I met Mohamed here in London in 2012 to see what I could do to help. One of the conclusions of that meeting was that there had to be free and fair elections, and that reform was needed. He also met the Minister’s predecessor, who was briefed on events.

In October 2012, I was shocked and saddened to see Anni being arrested again and taken away by many men in riot gear. Those who know Anni know what a gentle, calm and charismatic man he is, and to see him taken by boat to some wretched island prison was disgraceful. To many, this man was their great hope and their democratically elected President. Anni was dragged through the courts, but thankfully was allowed to stand for election this September.

That brings us nearly up to date. Anni did everything that was asked of him, waited patiently until elections arrived, campaigned in a fair manner and secured 45.45% of the vote. That was higher than he achieved in the first round of elections in 2008. Was that enough? No, of course not. The failed politician and wealthy businessman, Qasim Ibrahim, had his colleagues in the Supreme Court annul the elections, which had been called free and fair by the Commonwealth and the EU.

Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con): I commend my hon. Friend on all the work that she has done to further the cause of democracy in the Maldives. She touched on the Commonwealth, which suspended the Maldives in 2012 for its democracy and human rights violations. Does she hope that this issue will be high on the agenda at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka?

Karen Lumley: I hope that the Maldives will be very high on the agenda at the Commonwealth conference, and I look forward to the Prime Minister being able to put his case at that meeting.

However, we are where we are today. Elections were held that were cited as free and fair. Two of my colleagues, one of whom is here today, were there representing the Foreign Office. Strange, isn’t it? What happened smacks to me of a child who cannot win a board game, so they tip over the board. We are here today hoping, I suppose, that elections will take place on the newly scheduled date of 9 November.

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Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire) (Lab): I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing the debate. Is she as astonished as I am that members of the Maldivian Supreme Court, who are making legal decisions on the conduct and process of the presidential elections in the Maldives, do not have any legal qualifications or legal training? That, in itself, is not conducive to elections and decisions that are seen as fair, open, transparent, and in the name of the people.

Karen Lumley: I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. I totally agree with her. When the elections are finally over, I think that the Commonwealth and the rest of the world need to look at helping the Maldives with its constitutional arrangements to ensure that it can move on in a way that is free and fair.

Let us hope, however, that the elections take place on Saturday, and that we get a clear winner—somebody with 50% or more of the votes—or at least that we manage to get to the second round. A resolution was passed by Parliament stating that if there is no winner on the 9th, the Speaker of the Parliament will head the Government as interim President until a President can be democratically elected. I welcome that measure and hope that we will at last see President Waheed leave his unelected post. I also hope that on 16 November, the second round will provide the Maldives with a democratically elected President who can get on with the job. However, I have just heard, in the past hour, that the Progressive party of Maldives and the Jumhooree party are still refusing to sign the votes of registry, thereby putting this week’s elections once again in jeopardy.

I know that the Minister and the Foreign Secretary have taken a great interest in the Maldives, as did the Minister’s predecessor, but time is running out. As Charles Tannock MEP said in the European Parliament recently,

“The people of the Maldives deserve better than this. They must have their voices heard and their decisions respected.”

Time is running out for the Maldives. The international community and the Commonwealth must be ready to step in and stand up for their newest democracy. I urge the Minister to put whatever pressure he can on the Commonwealth and the rest of the world to ensure that the elections go ahead on Saturday and the run-off the week after. I also urge him to look very carefully at the reason why the Supreme Court annulled the elections, claiming that there were dead voters and made-up names on the register. At least one of those so-called dead people has, I understand, written to the Minister. Indeed, of the 13 who were supposed to be dead, seven have now been found living.

We must be ready to stand up and be counted if necessary. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister called Anni Nasheed his new best friend. Let us not let our friends down here today. As usual, I look forward to the Minister’s reply.

4.40 pm

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr Hugo Swire): I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Karen Lumley) for securing the debate. I believe that it is her second debate on the Maldives, her first one being in November 2012. I am particularly grateful to her for her continued interest in the Maldives and her tireless support for democratic reform there.

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I want to speak very explicitly and clearly, because I want to leave no one, particularly anyone in the Maldives who is listening to what I am saying or who will receive a report of it later, in doubt. I want it to be crystal clear where the Government stand on the current situation.

On the problems and the need to support democratic reform in the Maldives, that is a desire very much shared by the Government, who consider the Maldives to be a long-standing friend and international ally, but we are, as my hon. Friend is, deeply dismayed by the delays in the democratic process. Democracy in the country has been a recent and welcome development. The first multi-party presidential elections were held—my hon. Friend alluded to them—only in 2008. We must recognise that the people and the electoral process of the Maldives have come a long way in that time.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) raised the issue of religious freedom as part of democracy and human rights in the Maldives, and he is absolutely right that the Maldivian constitution stipulates that a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives. We believe that that provision is a violation of article 48 of the international covenant on civil and political rights, which was ratified by the Maldives in September 2006. We have raised our concerns about that with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, have urged them to promote religious tolerance and have supported that through funding projects to promote moderate Islam.

Let me revert to the democratic process and the democratisation of the Maldives. The evidence is that more than 85%—how many of us would like to be able to cite that figure for our own constituencies?—of the electorate voted in the presidential elections on 7 September this year, demonstrating their strong commitment to the democratic process. Polls were judged by international and domestic observers to have been fair, free and credible. As the Maldives Elections Commission stated, the election was described by observers as

“one of the most peaceful and best”

that they had seen. That certainly remains our view.

However, it is clear that in recent weeks the commitment demonstrated by the Maldivian people has not been respected by some politicians, whose various manoeuvres, including calls for military intervention, have sought to frustrate and impede the democratic process.

Following what appeared to be a weakly substantiated legal challenge from an unsuccessful presidential candidate, the Maldives Supreme Court voted to annul the election results and ordered a restart of the process. Regrettably, the controversy does not end there. On 19 October, the scheduled re-run was cancelled at the last moment, and the Maldives police service intervened to ensure that the vote could not take place. The cancellation came as a result of the refusal of two candidates to sign the electoral register—one of the 16 onerous conditions imposed by the Supreme Court. That condition in effect allows any one candidate to veto the elections, raising the possibility, as my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch says, of further delays.

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However, such interference has not gone unnoticed. On 30 October, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in a statement:

“I am alarmed that the Supreme Court of the Maldives is interfering excessively in the presidential elections, and in so doing is subverting the democratic process and violating the right of Maldivians to freely elect their representatives.”

The statement also rightly noted:

“Judges should act in accordance with the principles of impartiality, propriety, equality and due diligence”.

Navi Pillay also expressed concerns about the reports of intimidation, noting that the Supreme Court had threatened to charge both lawyers and media with contempt of court for challenging the Court’s decisions. Local non-governmental organisations, including Transparency Maldives, have been subject to inappropriate and unwarranted threats of investigation and dissolution. Such attempts to silence dissent must be condemned. Threats against staff at the Elections Commission and Human Rights Commission must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible brought to justice. The current Government and those responsible for the impasse should understand that their domestic actions are not isolated from the scrutiny of the international community.

I raised the troubling situation in the Maldives with my counterparts at the Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting in New York in September. After all, building, supporting and strengthening democratic rights, freedoms and institutions are values fundamental to the Commonwealth. In fact, such is our concern at the Maldives’ disregard for those values that it prompts the question—if the elections do not proceed as scheduled—of whether it is appropriate for the Maldives to be represented at the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo.

In addition to what has been done by the UK and the Commonwealth, statements of concern have been issued by, among others, India, the US, the EU, the UN and those with business interests vital to the Maldivian economy, such as Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group. It is clear that further delays to the elections, and related instability and human rights concerns, will further damage both the Maldives’ international reputation and their economy.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch noted, the Maldives’ constitution makes it clear that a new President should be elected by 11 November. With less than a week to go, there are justifiable worries that that deadline will not be met and the Maldives will be plunged into uncharted constitutional waters. The Maldives Parliament—the Majlis—has passed a resolution for the Speaker to act as an interim President if required. We hope that that workable solution can be agreed between the parties.

I stress again that the British Government have taken a robust stance on this issue and continue to contribute to international efforts to ensure that the vote takes place. That is no less than the Maldivian people deserve. The United Kingdom has provided capacity-building support for the Maldives Elections Commission; funded observer education through the United Nations Development Programme; and provided election observers, including Members of this House and the other place.

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Karen Lumley: If the elections do go ahead on Saturday and then there is the run-off the week after, will any observers be there from our Parliament to observe the elections?

Mr Swire: So many of our colleagues have gone backwards and forwards like yo-yos to the Maldives in the past few weeks that I am not sure that anyone has the appetite to go again. I have been discussing observers with the secretary-general of the Commonwealth—I shall say something about that in a minute—but I see from the reaction of certain hon. Friends that they are dying to go back to the Maldives, hopefully for the final time for this election.

As I was saying, we have funded observer education through the UN Development Programme; provided election observers, including Members of this House—some of whom wish to go again—and the other place; and encouraged the EU to provide election experts to keep a close eye on proceedings. We also strongly support the Commonwealth’s continued commitment to observing elections and the engagement of the Commonwealth’s special envoy to the Maldives, Sir Don McKinnon.

Our high commissioner to Colombo, who is also accredited to the Maldives, has been in close contact with key figures. He and his staff have visited the Maldives several times in the past two months. He will be there again this week with the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, the Commonwealth special envoy to the Maldives, and his American and Indian counterparts. I have spoken to the Commonwealth secretary-general a number of times, and I shall visit the Maldives on 17 November, when I fully expect to be able to pay my respects to the new, democratically elected president.

We are frustrated and concerned, but not without hope. There are practical actions that can be taken without delay. The voter registers are due to be signed by candidates today. I am alarmed by what my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch has just told me, but a commitment to do that will help to ensure that the elections can take place.

Rosie Cooper: What can be done to help the process? We will have what is substantially a veto if the election lists are not agreed. If, as is thought, the candidates do not agree to those lists, what does the Minister think will happen this weekend?

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Mr Swire: We will be somewhere near the impasse that I was so concerned about. We will continue to apply whatever pressure we can, and all the different agencies and countries involved, which I have just mentioned, will continue to do that.

I was about to answer the questions raised earlier by the hon. Member for West Lancashire. I know that she is a vice-chair of the all-party group and has visited the islands. Regarding the capacity of the judiciary, we welcome the visit of the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. Her statement urged the Maldivian Government to address a number of challenges hampering the functioning of the judicial system in the Maldives, such as training, education and transparency. Progress in that area is vital, as the special rapporteur suggested, to strengthen the independence of the judiciary in the Maldives.

I assure my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch that, in the coming days—despite the news we have just heard, which I think is unconfirmed at the moment—the Government will, together with the Commonwealth, the UN, the EU and international partners, continue to follow developments in the Maldives closely and to make our views known.

As the Foreign Secretary said last month, further challenges to prevent elections from taking place would undermine democracy in the Maldives. The Maldivian people deserve the opportunity to choose their president in accordance with their constitutional rights.

Once again, I thank my hon. Friend and other hon. Members for their continued interest in the subject. I urge them to continue to support the people of the Maldives and the democratic process there in whatever way they can. It is imperative that the rescheduled elections go ahead as planned. Anything short of that will be unacceptable. I say again to those people listening in the Maldives: the world is watching closely and it wants democratic elections, a democratically elected president and no further impediment to that to be created artificially by anyone in that country, which deserves so much better.

Question put and agreed to.

4.54 pm

Sitting adjourned.