West End Extra - Letters to the Editor: Social housing should not be regarded as a second rate choice

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 16 November 2007

Social housing should not be regarded as a second rate choice

• ONE of the items for debate at the November 7 council meeting was housing and the important role social housing would play in providing housing for families in Westminster.
The cabinet member for housing, Councillor Angela Harvey, stated that such housing should be seen as a “land base” for residents and that progress to home ownership should be encouraged.
Councillor Lee Rowley stated that council tenancy, or “state housing” as he referred to it, encouraged people to be “economically inactive”. The proposals to build more social housing in estates with high levels of social housing, instead of spreading social housing throughout the city, is being resisted by many tenants.
Rented accommodation, whether by the council or private landlords, is the only way we are going to house the thousands of people in overcrowded or temporary accommodation in Westminster and elsewhere in London.
The Tories must drop this snobbish hostility to council housing and see it as providing valuable homes to people with housing needs. Many tenants choose to rent and this should not be seen as a second rate choice.
Cllr Guthrie McKie,
Harrow Road ward

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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