UNDER LABOUR COUNCIL HOUSING WAITING LISTS INCREASE BY 350%

Speaking in Communities and Local Government Questions in the House of Commons today, Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield, asked the Secretary of State: "What change there has been in the number of households on council waiting lists for social housing since 1997?

"In Chesterfield the waiting list has risen from 1,774 to 6,170, while nationally it has risen by half a million. Yet Government policy has allowed the number of social houses to fall by 600,000 since 1997, and the Government steal £3 million of Chesterfield council tenants' rent every year rather than allow Chesterfield to build new social housing. When will the Government change their disastrous, dogmatic and failed housing policies?

Commenting afterwards, Paul Holmes said:

"Unbelievably, the present Government have a worse record than the Conservative Government in terms of building social housing.

Despite the increase in people on the waiting list for council housing in Chesterfield of nearly 350% since 2003, the Labour Government still took £3.2 million, 14 % of all the rents paid by Chesterfield's tenants, to be spent in the other parts of the country.

The Minister's answer was completely unsatisfactory. Why should Chesterfield council tenants have to pay for projects like the London Olympics when we can't afford to invest in increasing our own housing stock?"