heidi alexander. heidi alexander: number one, mr. speaker. mr. osborne: the prime minister is in italy and i have been asked to reply. this morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others, and in addition to my duties in the house i shall have further such meetings later today. heidi alexander: under this government's leadership, the construction of social rented homes has fallen to a 20-year low, but since 2010 the amount of housing benefit paid to private landlords has risen by £1.5 billion. does the chancellor understand the connection or would he like to come to my next advice surgery so that my constituents can explain it to him? mr. osborne: of course we are aware that there is an acute housing shortage in london, which is why we need to build more homes, but i can tell the honorable lady that we built more council housing in the last five years than was built in the entire 13 years of the last labour government. i am very happy to come to lewisham, where we will talk about the fact that today the claimant count is down by 25%