Clegg and Kramer quiz Brown

11.02.00am GMT Thu 17th Jan 2008

[Jan 16] Nicholas Clegg (Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat): The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says that home repossessions will rocket this year by 50 per cent., with one repossession every 12 minutes. What comfort can the Prime Minister offer the 45,000 British families who now face the prospect of losing their homes this year?

Gordon Brown (Prime Minister) : What I can say to them is that we are determined to have low interest rates; to have low interest rates we have to have low inflation; and to have low inflation we have to have a decent economic policy, which I am afraid the hon. Gentleman's party does not have.

Nicholas Clegg (Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat) : The reality is that the Prime Minister allowed, on his watch, grossly irresponsible lending practices by banks to destabilise the housing market. Will he act now to ensure that mortgage lenders take their responsibilities seriously and do more to stop evictions, or will he just sit there wringing his hands while British families lose their homes?

Gordon Brown (Prime Minister) : I think that the hon. Gentleman forgets that there are 1.5 million more home owners under a Labour Government than there were before our Government started. We have extended home ownership to all regions of the country and to people who previously could not afford it. I have been given a copy of the dossier on the hon. Gentleman that, unfortunately, was prepared by the person sitting next to him, who suggests that on every major economic and social issue the leader of the Liberal party has flip-flopped, and keeps flip-flopping.

. . Susan Kramer (Richmond Park, Liberal Democrat) : The Plain English Campaign today described the consultation on Heathrow expansion as atrocious and said: "This document effectively takes away human rights...No ordinary person could be expected to read and understand this". Will the Prime Minister please instruct the Department for Transport to withdraw the consultation until it can be written in comprehensible language, and will he tell Ministers and officials that it is a disgrace that none of them will attend a single public meeting on that crucial point?

Gordon Brown (Prime Minister) : The hon. Lady gives the impression that because of the wording of the document she does not understand the issue at stake, which is whether there will be a new runway at Heathrow. The consultation is there for the public to involve themselves in. I hope that people will join it vigorously, and then a decision can be made. [http://www.tinyurl.com/2qkr26]