Both Labour and the Conservatives are repeatedly making claims about house building

14 Jul 2023 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Conservative and Labour claims on house building, fact checked

At Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden referred to the government’s “record housebuilding”. He made a similar claim at PMQs last week, saying that “it is under this party that we have record levels of housing being built”.

Similarly, at PMQs on Wednesday 28 June, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed that “in the last three years we have delivered almost record numbers of new home building in every one of those years”.

In the same exchange, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer made a seemingly contradictory claim, describing house building as “at its lowest rate since the war because [Rishi Sunak] cannot stand up to his own party”.

And last week, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner made a similar claim, saying that “house building is set to collapse to its lowest level since the war”.

Some of these claims are more accurate than others, but none give a complete picture of how current levels of house building compare to previous years.

While the number of ‘net additional dwellings’ in England has reached record highs in the last few years, these figures only go back 30 years.

Other historical data suggests higher house building records were set decades ago.

And none of the different official statistics suggest that house building is currently at its lowest rate since the Second World War, as Mr Starmer appeared to claim.

Using statistics without appropriate context and caveats can damage public trust in both the statistics and politicians. MPs and ministers should use data transparently and with all relevant context and caveats when a claim is first made, and quickly rectify oversights when they occur.

What do we know about housing data? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** No clear evidence of a significant fall in average waiting times ([link removed])
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In a series of broadcast interviews on 5 July, the health minister Maria Caulfield said that the waiting time for elective treatment in England was being “drastically reduced”.

The Department for Health and Social Care told Full Fact that Ms Caulfield was talking about the reduction in the number of people experiencing waits of more than 18 months or two years, something the minister also mentioned during her interviews.

But while the number of cases involving the very longest waits has come down significantly, this does not mean that people are facing shorter waits overall, as she said.

Seasonal patterns make the trend in waiting times difficult to interpret, but the latest public data when Ms Caulfield was speaking does not clearly show that the average waiting time is getting substantially shorter.

The median wait for treatment in NHS England remains extremely long by historic standards—longer than it was a year ago, or when the elective recovery plan was announced, in February 2022.

What is the NHS waiting list? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** Minister wrong to claim small boat arrivals are down 20% in the first six months of 2023 ([link removed])
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During an interview on Sky News last week, policing minister Chris Philp claimed that small boat crossings in the first six months of this year were “down about 20%” compared to the same period last year.

But that’s not correct according to the latest Home Office data. It shows the number of small boat arrivals in the UK between January and June fell by 10% compared to the same period last year.

Mr Philp may have been referring to data which shows small boat arrivals were down by 20% in the first five months of 2023. Home Office data shows that in June 2023, 3,823 people arrived via small boats—an increase of around 22% compared to June 2022 (3,140)—resulting in a smaller overall decrease when looking at data across the first six months as Mr Philp’s claim did.

After we published this fact check, we contacted Chris Philp to request a correction regarding this claim. Mr Philp is yet to respond.

If an MP makes a false or misleading claim on broadcast media they should take responsibility for ensuring it is appropriately corrected, and make efforts to ensure the correction is publicly available to anyone who might have heard the claim.

An in depth look at the data ([link removed])
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