You go down some street - no doubt it`s there, and we have to do something about it, and our programmes are designed to do that - but if that`s a picture of Newcastle, it`s not the one I recognise and I bet none in the North East do either.
Why can`t we, with a more intelligent policy, actually have houses that are affordable, built at higher densities than they are at the moment and built on brownfield sites.
What government has been doing, we`ve got major programmes now, of billions of pounds, which are directed by central government into these areas of deprivation.
We believe the 36, nearly 40, billion pound discount given for a right to buy houses took a million houses out of the public housing sector which is desperately needed for rent.