MP’s fears over plan for housing

AN Oldham MP is set to question ministers over plans to allow councils to build more homes — fearing they will not be able to pay off the loans but will be saddled with increasing debts.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants councils to come forward with plans to build more social housing to help families off the waiting list and provide work for construction workers hit by the recession.

The Prime Minister said any local authority that could convince him it could deliver new properties quickly and cost-effectively would get the full backing of Government.

Mr Brown is expected to confirm later this year that he will push ahead with proposals, currently out to consultation, to allow local authorities to keep all the rent from new social housing and all the receipts from homes later sold under the right-to-buy scheme.

Under current rules, councils must surrender some of the rent and 75 per cent of sales receipts to central government for redistribution across the country. It has led to local authorities building only a few hundred council homes a year.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher has repeatedly called for more social homes to be built to ease the waiting lists across the country.

This week he will meet Housing Minister Margaret Beckett and say he fears councils will not be able to meet repayments.

He said: “I do not see how councils could do this apart from building very small numbers of home.

“I am pleased the Prime Minister sees there is a major problem and we need social houses built, and I have been saying this could help the economic downturn, but councils need money from Government. It is not practical for councils to borrow given the other demands on them.

“I want to further investigate this to see how it can be funded and done practically.”

Mr Meacher also said the £12.5 billion it is costing Government to reduce VAT by 2.5 per cent for a year would have built 100,000 new homes.

According to figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government, almost 9,000 households in Oldham were waiting for council homes in the past year.

Mr Brown said: “We will not allow old arguments and old ideologies to stop us getting on with the job together when there are families that need homes, when there are bricklayers, carpenters and electricians ready and able to work, when there are construction companies that are ready to build houses.

“So in the coming months, we will report on further measures to address housing supply, to support real need and we recognise the important role that local authorities can play alongside, of course, the social housing reform that will ensure a fairer system of all.”