ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SKY NEWS, SUNDAY WITH NIALL PATERSON

NIALL PATERSON: I am very pleased to say we are joined by someone who has already made a few headlines this morning, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, Sajid Javid, a very good morning to you.

SAJID JAVID: Good morning.

NP: You are all over the papers like a puppy this morning, so let’s start with the key question: should Theresa May lead the Conservatives into the next election as she said that she wants to?

SAJID JAVID: Yes, if that’s what she wants to do, she should and she’d have my backing.

NP: So why on earth then when the Observer asked you the same question, they managed to write this: they asked the same question, ‘He waits several seconds, smiles then stands and offers his hand, “I think we’re out of time” he says, leaving us to draw the obvious conclusion.’ When you are asked a straightforward question like that wouldn’t it have been better just to have said …

SAJID JAVID: Well they make it sound a lot more dramatic than it actually was. That was an interview that was overrunning, I had got a date with my wife and I didn’t want to be late, it’s as simple as that. But you have actually taken the opportunity to ask me the question again and I’m glad you did because this is an important issue. Right now Theresa May is leading this country, she is providing leadership on so many issues and we will hopefully talk about some of those in a moment but if she decides as she said that she wants to continue to first run the party and then ask for the leadership of the country again in another election, she will have my support and I think she will have the support of almost every Minister and Cabinet Minister out there.

NP: Given the perception that there is a lack of discipline within the Cabinet at the moment, surely it would have been better just to have come straight out with a yes. It’s not just you who has at some point, for whatever reason, avoided the question. You’ve got Philip Hammond who did exactly the same thing, Boris Johnson couldn’t make his leadership ambitions clearer if he was wearing a baseball cap with ‘I want to be Prime Minister’ on it. So when you are confronted with situations like that, why is there not a rush to say, do you know what, Theresa May, she’s my woman?

SAJID JAVID: Well you asked me a straight question and I’ve given you a straight answer and I think that is the view of almost all the members of parliament that I meet with and it is the members of parliament who ultimately decide who leads the party. I think everyone recognises, and this is something you will hear a lot about during this conference, we haven’t got everything right, of course the result of the election was disappointing but we need to show that we’ve learned lessons from that and right here and now it is Theresa May who is going to take both the party and the country forward.

NP: Disappointing to the extent that Eric Pickles’ review of the election disaster suggests that the leader should not be free to set the manifesto themselves.

SAJID JAVID: Well let’s wait and see, Eric will soon release his review and we want to digest that and see what it really means and this is a review at this point, it is ultimately going to be for the party to decide what future rules will look like and …

NP: Do you see a problem with the leader setting the manifesto themselves without any input from others?

SAJID JAVID: Well I think it is important that you have good teamwork when it comes to developing a manifesto. I think that was one of the lessons again learned from the recent election experience, to have the whole team involved in that but we have begun that process of learning those lessons but we also need to set out, and this will be very clear I think from this conference, is that we are determined with our mission and our overriding mission – I know it is simply put but it is so important – is that we do need to be that country that works for everyone and not just the privileged few. You’ll be hearing that again and again at this conference and we will be setting out exactly what we mean by that.

NP: It seems what we are learning from what is to be discussed at conference, what is going to be announced at conference this year is that it is about reminding the public that there is a domestic policy agenda, something you suggested in that Observer interview wasn’t prominent enough during the election and also trying to lure young people back to the fold. Would you agree?

SAJID JAVID: I do agree that we do need to do a lot more to reach out to every part of the community out there and that includes obviously young people and we didn’t make a good enough case at the election on that.

NP: Explain the policy to me on tuition fees because to me it doesn’t seem like a policy at all, it is simply U-turning on the policy that you announced just earlier this year in terms of putting tuition fees above £9250.

SAJID JAVID: One of the things that was clear from the election is that we need to do a better job of explaining to young people in particular about what more we can do for them and we need to communicate that better. Two of the things that came up a lot in that election, one was around the cost of higher education and the second was around housing. So let me take the first which you’ve just raised, it is to recognise that we need to do more work to make the current system fairer and that’s why we’ve announced today that there will be a look again at that system and we look at later setting out what further changes we might be able to make but we also wanted to set out something immediately, to show that we’ve got the message and the immediate announcements today on that is first of all we are scrapping the intended increase in tuition fees so that will no longer be happening. Also we will be raising the threshold from which a student starts repaying their loan from £21,000 to £25,000.

NP: All of which when costed means that students will be saving roughly £30 a month so this is the bold radical policy agenda that is going to recruit young people back to the Conservatives?

SAJID JAVID: No, that’s your choice of words, we haven’t come out and said this is it, this is the bold radical agenda. This is part of our response to making sure we are listening to the people, particularly young people, and their concerns but it is only part of that response. At the same time we have also said that we are going to look again at the system, there will be some further changes. I can’t pre-empt those today, I don't think anyone wants to see them overnight but we will be setting that out and I think it is part of us recognising that there will be more to do.

NP: Of course not all young people are students as you are well aware so let’s move on to housing which is something that affects everyone. How many new homes were built last year?

SAJID JAVID: The total number was 220,000 increase in the number of homes, it’s a dramatic increase, it’s the biggest number since …

NP: Despite the National Housing Association figure of 141,000. But the one thing that we can both agree on is that that figure of 250,000 which everyone seems to agree is necessary to get stocks back to level, you’ve missed it yet again.

SAJID JAVID: Well we haven’t missed … there is no official target of 250,000 but what we are saying is …

NP: You have a target of one million by 2020 …

SAJID JAVID: That’s right.

NP: … and you are not going to make that.

SAJID JAVID: We won’t miss that target, we absolutely won’t miss that target. I am very confident that if we stick with the reforms that we’ve already announced, and we do need to do more, that we will be able to hit our target of a million new homes by 2020. You asked me how many last year, I have told you on the ONS’s independent numbers the total increase in homes was 220,000. I think the numbers you are referring to there are probably just newly built homes but ours is total new homes which includes conversions and other types of new homes.

NP: Well it links to help to buy doesn’t it? At the moment you would concede that property prices are too high, there isn’t enough housing stock, yes?

SAJID JAVID: Absolutely.

NP: So why then are you increasing demand when supply isn’t increasing?

SAJID JAVID: Because what we realise is, first of all you have correctly identified the fundamental problem and that is for years under successive governments this country has not been building enough homes while demand has been increasing and so we have seen a huge rise in the cost of homes and therefore out of reach of so many more people and that is not acceptable. We are actually in the middle of a housing crisis which is the responsibility of successive governments and we do need to do a lot more about it. Now in trying to deal with that, there is no silver bullet. Part of it is making sure that we are, for example, releasing more land in the right places and that’s why I announced a whole sweeping set of planning changes just a few weeks ago but part of it also is helping people now, for those people that need immediate help, so if they can get together a small deposit but the Help to Buy system will actually help them purchase that first home. Remember, some 80% of people so far who have used Help to Buy are first time buyers, this is an excellent way of helping them.

NP: So the problem that some people have had is that there have been a number of promises made and manifesto commitments made by the Conservatives: starter homes 2014, £1.1 billion put aside, not a single home has been built under that scheme has it?

SAJID JAVID: Well we focus on affordable homes and deliver …

NP: It hasn’t happened has it?

SAJID JAVID: In the last five years we have delivered over 330,000 new affordable homes including some 240,000 homes for rent and if you look at the previous 13 years under Labour we actually saw the number of affordable homes for rent decline by more than 400,000. We have helped build more council houses in the last five years than the previous 13 years under Labour so we are getting on with it.

NP: How many with affordable rents were built last year?

SAJID JAVID: Well I can’t tell you exactly for last year but I can tell you in the last … since …

NP: 944 is the figure. There is a real problem with the lack of supply of social housing at the moment. What specifically, and what you are talking about at the moment, does anything to deal with that problem?

SAJID JAVID: Well first of all let’s look at what’s happened to social housing since the government changed in 2010. 330,000 new units built, one of the most ever in a seven year period and as I said, in the previous 13 years with the previous government, a decline of 420,000 units and social housing units for rent.

NP: You have also cut the subsidy for social rent as well, for social housing.

SAJID JAVID: What we have actually done is turn around to housing associations and others and said we want you to try and use the cash that you get more efficiently to build more units and they have risen up to the challenge and done that. Having said all that, I am absolutely the first to accept that much more needs to be done on social housing, not just the quantity of but also the quality of and that tragedy, the terrible tragedy of Grenfell Tower, that was a reminder to all of us about where things have gone wrong when people haven’t been listened to in social housing and that’s why I also announced just last week a top to bottom review of social housing in this country, to look at it properly once and for all.

NP: Rents are spiralling out of control, house prices are up by 32% since 2010, you have a million more people in rented accommodation than at the start of your time in government. People are looking for evidence that the Conservatives have a degree of competency when it comes to dealing with problems within the housing market. You mentioned Grenfell right there, in the new year we could see a Labour backbencher putting forward a Private Members Bill that would enshrine in law the right of every tenant to live in home that was fit for human habitation, would you support that.

SAJID JAVID: Well the reason – I remember that motion coming to parliament and the reason, what was debated in parliament then is that we already have these laws in place and the question was much more about making sure that they are enforced, so what did we do? We …

NP: It is all very well those rules and regulations being in place, they are struggling to find homes this morning. Just a simple question, would you support a Private Members Bill that would enshrine in law the right of tenants to be in accommodation fit for human habitation?

SAJID JAVID: I have already said that we need a full, top to bottom review of social housing and that includes the quality of and I will look at whatever more needs to be done including on quality but what we have done already, we have put millions more pounds into local authorities so that they can actually enforce the current set of rules and help them to do that.

NP: Sajid Javid, many thanks for joining us here in Manchester at the Conservative party conference, I hope you have a lovely time.