Tuesday, 24 July 2007

UCATT Welcomes Housing Green Paper

Construction union UCATT have given a cautious but generally warm welcome to the Government launch of its Green Paper on Housing.

The Green Paper will mean that an extra £8 billion is spent on affordable housing and by 2010 there will be 70,000 affordable homes built a year. Of the 70,000 additional homes being built, 45,000 will be homes for social rent, some by councils.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “The Government’s commitment to build a far higher number of affordable homes is warmly welcomed and is long overdue. Hundreds of thousands of families in dire housing need will be relieved that the positive policy decisions of the Government will help to alleviate their misery.”

Mr Ritchie, added: “The positive decision to allow councils to build many more homes for rent is to be welcomed. Councils have in the past and can in the future play a key role in building high quality affordable homes.

UCATT will campaign to ensure that that house builders do not use the new expansion in housebulding as a further opportunity to exploit their workforce. Workers should not be forced to work on a bogus self-employed basis, that endangers their safety, denies them benefits and prevents them enjoying employment rights. Further that the new housebuilding programme maximises the training of apprentices, so that a far high number of young workers enter the industry and help fill the shortfall of skilled British construction workers.