Wednesday, 11 July 2007

Government's Housing Plans Should Be Welcomed

Construction union UCATT have welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement that he is to place the building of affordable housing at the forefront of Government policy.

In his statement to the Commons today (Wednesday July11) Mr Brown committed the Government to building 3 million homes by 2020. UCATT are delighted that Mr Brown has listened to their lobbying and has recognised that local authorities must be at the forefront of affordable house building if waiting lists are to be cut.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “Our new Prime Minister has acted swiftly to place social housing at the forefront of his domestic policy agenda. Thousands of families are in desperate need of good quality accommodation. Labour must engage in a renaissance of high quality affordable house building. Families have a right to demand decent, affordable, and democratically accountable social housing.”

The Government is expected to shortly announce a Green Paper into their house building plans. As part of their submission UCATT will argue for the immediate suspension of the Right to Buy policy.

Mr Ritchie, added: “The incredible scarcity of social housing means that it is economically illiterate to continue with the Right to Buy scheme. Right to Buy must be immediately suspended, in order to dramatically alleviate the current housing crisis.”