Factchecking housing claims at Prime Minister's Questions

At today's Prime Minister's Questions Harriet Harman and David Cameron clashed on their parties' respective housing records. We've taken a look at some of their key claims.

"since the right hon. Gentleman became Prime Minister the percentage of people who own their own home has fallen"—Harriet Harman

That's right in England although owner-occupying began its decline under Labour.

In England, 66% of tenures were owner-occupied in 2010/11. That fell to 63% by 2013/14. Private renting is the big riser: now accounting for almost one in five households.

But this follows a longer-term trend started in the mid-noughties. Before then, home ownership rose throughout the 20th century.

"for every 10 [council homes] sold, only one has been built"—Harriet Harman

As we've checked before, this is about right. Between April 2012 and December 2014, 26,000 homes were sold under Right to Buy arrangements in England. Over the same time period, about 2,700 replacement homes were delivered using Right to Buy receipts: that's about one for every ten houses sold under Right to Buy.

"We built more council homes in the last five years than were built under 13 years of the previous Labour Government"—David Cameron

This is true. But these days most social homes, which is what the Prime Minister was being pressed on, are built for housing associations rather than being 'council homes'. So this is a bit like answering a question about music sales and only talking about vinyl.

In the last Parliament around 6,600 homes were built for local authorities in England, compared to 2,900 between elections in 1997 and 2010.

Including housing association homes, 128,500 social homes were built during the five years of the last government, compared to 250,800 over 13 years with Labour.

We've calculated each government's term from the second quarter of the relevant year (1997 and 2010).

We've also been looking into a claim made by the Prime Minister on the generosity of disability benefits under the Coalition. We'll have more details on this tomorrow.

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