Mr. Bob Jordan:

In 2004, a report by the National Economic and Social Council stated we needed to have 200,000 social housing units by 2012. We have fallen far short of that. Between housing associations and local authorities, we have approximately 150,000 units. Obviously, we need a multi-annual social housing building programme. We and other organisations have identified the need to gear up to organise an additional 9,000 social housing units a year. That is the investment that is required. Social housing exists for a reason. When things go wrong, we cannot depend on the type of volatile private housing rental market we have currently. It is necessary that a proportion of our housing stock is social housing. We have identified a figure of approximately 15%, but it is just about 9% currently.