HOUSING dominated exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions, with the Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn marking the impending six-month anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
Mrs May began the session by referring to the west London tower block fire, in which 71 people died.
She said: “I’m sure I speak for members across the House when I say it remains at the forefront of our minds as a truly unimaginable tragedy that should never have happened.
“Many who survived the fire lost everything that night and I assure the House we continue to do everything we can to support those affected, and take the necessary steps to make sure it can never happen again.”
Mr Corbyn added: “This week does indeed mark six months since the avoidable, tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, which took the lives of 71 people and injured and traumatised many more.”
He added: “That fire also shone a light on the neglect of working class communities all over this country.
“Since this Government came to power, homelessness is up by 50 per cent, rough-sleeping has doubled.
“Homelessness and rough-sleeping have risen every single year since 2010. Will the Prime Minister pledge today that 2018 will be the year when homelessness starts to go down?”
Mrs May said no MP wants to see anybody who is homeless or sleeping rough, adding: “That is why the Government is putting £500 million into the question of homelessness.”
She said this is also why the Government had backed the Homelessness Reduction Act, initially introduced by Tory backbencher Bob Blackman, and said there are a number of projects being supported to deal with rough-sleeping.
The PM added Chancellor Philip Hammond has outlined measures to help people have their own roof over their head, noting: “Compared to Labour, where house-building went down by 45 per cent, where the number of homes bought and sold went down by 40 per cent, and social housing went down by 400,000.”
Mr Corbyn defended the previous Labour government’s record on homelessness, reducing it by two-thirds.
He added: “When Labour left office, the number of children in temporary accommodation was a lot less than it is now.”
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