by Keith Richmond
A persuasive new report by the Council Housing Group of MPs is making the case, ahead of next year’s general election, for greater investment in council housing in Britain and also for what it calls “fair funding” for councils.
The report, called Council Housing: Time to Invest, says governments have already taken “more than enough” from council house tenants to pay off “the total historic debt and meet the investment backlog” and argues that no new government money has been invested in ALMOs. It says “council tenants collectively pay out of their own rents for the capital costs of decent homes.”
Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby and chair of the House of Commons Council Housing Group, said: “It is time to put council housing back at the heart of housing provision, and to invest in a new generation of first class council housing. The government must deliver a genuine level playing field for council housing. Councils and tenants will not be fobbed off again with half measures and MPs will not vote for an unsustainable deal.”
Heather Wakefield, national secretary of Unison, said: “Never has the time been more right for a massive programme of sustainable investment in council housing – to get five million people off waiting lists and to maintain high quality homes.”
And Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of Unite, said: “The quickest and best way to meet housing needs and to mobilise the growing army of unemployed construction workers is by way of a major programme of council house building.”
