Record social housing to be built in 2007-08

11.47.35am GMT Thu 6th Jul 2006

Rate of build of social housing to more than double after years of Labour failure

231 new social homes are being planned to be built in the year 2007/08 and these homes will be larger.

This is a great achievement compared to Labours record. For instance only 44 and 43 homes were built in the years 1999 and 2000 respectively under Labour.

The new Lib Dem / Tory administration is increasing the proportion of social housing built as a percentage of all housing from as low as 11% under labour to 30%. Planners are also using number of bedrooms rather than units as a measure of this proportion. This will stop developers building one-bedroom rather than the 3-4 bedroom homes that families need.

Whilst this is good news this is still a drop in the ocean compared with the need for 700 rented homes need per year in Ipswich. Councils are not allowed to borrow to invest in housing - a policy introduced by the Tories and continued under Labour.