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Are homes affordable?
• I AM amazed how soon after Boris’s election to City Hall the finger pointing and blame game have started. (Boris urged to help home-hunt families, June 6)
After 11 years of a Labour government and eight years of Ken Livingstone as London Mayor, precisely how many council houses have been built in Islington? How many affordable houses that are actually affordable to the average working person in Islington have been built? How many family homes, not one-bedroom rabbit hutches, have been built? Labour’s housing record is abysmal.
And the situation has been made worse by a decade of a Lib Dem-run Islington Council. No wonder we have more than 13,000 people on the housing register when the council has been auctioning off prime housing stock on the open market. Wouldn’t it have been better to use these houses for shared ownership schemes for working families?
To live in a decent-sized family home in Islington, you either need to meet the eligibility criteria for council housing or be a millionaire, forcing most families to move to the outer boroughs. What is needed is a comprehensive strategy which promotes access and availability to housing on all income scales.
The mayor is right to review the London-wide 50 per cent “affordability” target. It overpromotes the building of small flats and doesn’t reflect the needs of people in Islington. And for what? To meet some arbitrary target set by the centre? In Islington, our housing needs may be completely different from those in places such as Chingford, Uxbridge or Bexley.
To get a good local agreement requires strong leadership at the council to fight for the best deal for Islington residents. With our current set of Lib Dem representatives, I live in hope.
RICHARD BUNTNG
Deputy chairman, Islington Conservatives
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