But this skit underlines the tremendous Crisis in the Homes of thousands of old people in this country about which the noble Lord the Member for Dorset, South has no comprehension.

Yesterday's Sunday Telegraph carried the headlines, "Old NHS wards used in nurses' Homes Crisis", "Police shortages leave 999 calls unanswered", and the Times Educational Supplement this week: "Recruitment crisis spurs ministers to offer postgraduates up to £10,000 a year".

However, they alone will not solve the Affordable Homes Crisis entirely.

To do so would make a significant impact on the Crisis in Affordable Homes.

We have a very significant Crisis in Affordable Homes, and it is not just the homeless, the overcrowded, the poorly housed or the poorly paid who are losing out.

Members will recall the early-day motion tabled by me and my hon. Friends in respect of the Birmingham care Homes Crisis, which said: "That this House expresses its grave concern about the crisis in care for the elderly in Birmingham and elsewhere in England; is alarmed that over 80 care homes have closed in Birmingham over the last 18 months; recognises that a main contributory factor to this crisis is the decision by Birmingham Social Services to pay substantially less than the real cost of providing care for the elderly in care homes and that this practice is threatening to force good quality independent care homes out of business, causing grave distress and confusion to vulnerable, frail and elderly residents in Birmingham".

My Lords, in September last year Housing Voice, which calls itself the Affordable Homes Alliance, published the report of an independent inquiry into what it termed-rightly, we would all agree-the Affordable Homes Crisis.

We have an Affordable Homes Crisis in our country that the Government are not getting to grips with.