Cllr Madeleine Kirk Calls for Action on Social Housing

11.29.00am GMT Fri 28th Nov 2008

Cllr Madeleine Kirk, Prospective Lib Dem MP for York Outer, last night called for more to be done to increase the availability of social housing in York.

Cllr Madeleine Kirk has called for action on social housing in York

Speaking in favour of a motion put to council by the Liberal Democrats, Madeleine said: "I believe there is a pressing need to increase the number of social housing properties within the City of York.

"At the moment there are in the region of 1.6million households on the waiting list in England. That represents around 4 million people or 1 person in 13.

With the severity of the global credit crunch and escalating repossessions (11,300 homes between July & September of this year)…an unprecedented demand for council homes has been created which councils, including the City of York, are struggling to meet."

This year 844 homes in York have been the subject of either mortgage or landlord possession. This figure may increase to 1200 by the end of the year. By 2010 housing charity Shelter suggests that one in ten people will be on the waiting list for social housing by 2010.

"The Liberal Democrats propose that the government gives social landlords financial freedom to buy un-sellable property, at a discount, to reinvigorate the housing market and provide those much needed homes for those on low incomes or the homeless.

This plan would inject money into the troubled housing market, help banks cope with the credit crunch and allow City of York Council to meet its local housing need.

"The Labour manifesto of 1997 "lambasted the Conservatives' woeful record on social housing", but things have got worse not better, and the continuing neglect has left over 1.6 million families on waiting lists - a 63% increase since Labour came to power. The home ownership market teeters on the edge of an early 1990s-style repossession disaster. We now face the worst crisis in Social Housing since 'Cathy Come Home'"