Image source, PA

Commenting on the data, Labour said house building was "falling far short" of UK needs - saying "20% fewer new homes started last year than before the global financial crisis".

Shadow housing and planning secretary John Healey also accused the government of failing to build enough affordable homes.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Nigel Evans asked for a "weekly EU question time" to be established "preferably answered by the Leader of the House", so MPs have a regularly opportunity to ask questions on the EU in the run up to the up to the referendum, 

He says it would give him the opportunity to ask "should the public vote to leave the EU would it be right that the UK can set its own VAT rate on sanitary towels".

Mr Grayling does not reply to the request to start a new weekly question session, but says it is right that the current VAT rate on sanitary products is "imposed by the EU".

Image source, Getty Images

The number of new homes being started and completed in England is at its highest level since 2008, government figures show.

In the final three months of 2015, about 37,080 new homes were started, a 23% rise on the previous period. And 37,230 were completed, (a 22% increase).

Here are some more stats:

• 143,560 housing starts in year to December 2015 (6% rise)
• 142,890 home builds were completed in same period (a 21% upswing)

Housing minister Brandon Lewis was asked about the figures and what impact the net migration numbers might have on housebuilding:

Newport will stay as the main base of the Office for National Statistics, the minister responsible has said.

An interim report in 2015 recommended that a London base be strengthened alongside the south Wales operations, where 2,000 people work. It said there had been a "detrimental" effect on expertise when work was moved from London to Newport in 2007.

But Paymaster General Mathew Hancock, said: "We're going to back Newport," promising new investment in technology.

More here

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

A Downing Street spokesman said the deal the PM had secured in Brussels would help to reduce the number of people coming to the UK, in its response to today's immigration figures.

The spokesman said David Cameron had been clear that "pull" of the UK's in-work benefits system could be a real incentive to migrants and that the "emergency brake" proposal would help to remove that incentive. 

Image source, PA

Responding to Ofcom's report which said BT must open up its cable network and allow competition to improve UK internet connections, a Downing Street spokesman said:

Adam Fleming
Daily and Sunday Politics reporter

I’ve been revisiting the scenes of some famous political meal deals following the revelation that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove agreed to campaign to leave the EU over a leg of lamb at the Mayor of London's home in North London.

During the 1975 European referendum, Labour and Tory Europhiles met at the Dorchester Hotel for secret breakfasts. The economist Vicky Pryce revealed that she had taken speeding points for her husband Chris Huhne at a restaurant in Covent Garden, named - cruelly - Christophers.

But what has happened to the restaurant that hosted the most famous pow-wow in recent political history – Granita in Islington, where Blair and Brown decided the future leadership of the Labour Party?

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

The figures are eye-watering. Last week it emerged NHS trusts in England were overspent by £2.2bn at the three-quarter mark of this financial year.

By the end of March that figure could rise to close to £3bn. To put that into context, that's more than the entire unemployment benefits bill.

It is, arguably, the most serious financial crisis in the history of the NHS.

More here

House of Commons
Parliament

Carrying over the debate on mother's advice from yesterday's PMQs, Chris Bryant tells the House his mother told him three things: "If it's free take two, never take a man home with a hat unless you've seen him without a hat and never trust a man wearing slip on shoes.

"I merely point out that the prime minster was wearing slip on shoes yesterday."

Commenting on today's immigration stats - which show net migration to the UK stands at 323,000 - Downing Street says it remains the government's ambition to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands.

Image source, Scottish Conservatives

A Conservative MSP has become the first Holyrood politician to speak publicly in favour of the UK leaving the European Union.

Margaret Mitchell, the party's justice spokeswoman, told BBC Scotland the EU was "unwieldy" and expensive.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson supports the UK remaining in the EU. But she has also made it clear that other Tory MSPs are free to take a different view.

More here

Image source, Reuters

Hungary is to hold a referendum on whether to accept mandatory EU quotas for relocating migrants, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced - but a poll date has not been disclosed.

In September, the EU agreed to relocate an additional 120,000 migrants across the continent - a move Hungary opposed.

Mr Orban said the quotas "could redraw Europe's cultural and religious identity".

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Reality Check

The 2010 Conservative manifesto said the party would take steps to cut net migration to "tens of thousands a year, not hundreds of thousands".

The 2015 manifesto said the party would keep that ambition.

The government can place controls on immigration from outside the EU but not inside it.

This morning's figures from the ONS, external estimate that annual net migration from other EU countries and from outside the EU are both considerably above 100,000.

Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn will be discussing the latest political news with former Labour shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna from midday.

Image source, Getty Images

The number of rough sleepers in England has risen by 30% in a year, to 3,569, according to figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

John Healey MP, Labour's shadow housing and planning secretary, said it was "the starkest possible reminder" of the government's housing "failure".

He said homelessness accommodation and other specialist housing should be exempt from housing benefit cuts and added: "Beyond that, these figures must be a wake-up call to ministers to change tack and adopt a more balanced set of housing plans."