MORE COUNCIL HOUSING NEEDED!

Have just been reading the PM's speech text from today which, on the surface, sounds fair enough with some welcome pronouncements on housing . But does anyone actually know what this will mean in terms of SOCIAL, not "affordable", housing. One of my first tasks as a local councillor was attending a workshop on the difference between the two. "Affordable" basically , means diddly squat per se.If you're a millionaire, what's "affordable" is a a tad more flexible than if you're on the minimum wage. And the fact is most people starting out on the property ladder are facing the tightest cash squeeze since the early 1990's. Back in 1988, I was able to buy a modest flat for £23, 000 as i was earning £9,000 a year - just 2.5 times my salary. On my current wage as a self-employed journalist, I would be unable to buy half of the house I now live in .We need more details from Brown about HOW the Government is going to help the low-paid who at the moment, can't even get onto the first rung of the ladder, Many thousands who mortgaged themselves to the limit are also in deep trouble. We need solutions, not soundbites. And that includes the right of local authorities to build more social housing for those for whome "affordable" is not an option .As Dave Osler points out, In 1981, local authorities in England and Wales owned nearly 4.8m homes. By 2005, that had shrunk to 2.8m, with some councils having sold their entire housing stock. And there are currently 1.6milion people on council house waiitng lists.
Tomorrow, Defend Council Housing's National Conference to ‘Stand Up for Council Housing’ takes place from 9:30am-4:30pm at TUC Congress House, Great Russell Street, London. Labour Party conference has voted to endorse the 4th option of direct investment in council housing for three years running. A REAL commitment from Gordon Brown on this issue is therefore long overdue. See here