Build family homes to beat child poverty
June 5, 2007 12:00 AM
Colchester needs to build around 500 Council houses to tackle the town's housing crisis for local families and to help eliminate child poverty.
That's the view of town MP Bob Russell who has challenged the Government over its failure to tackle child poverty. It is estimated that around 4,000 children in Colchester are living in housing which, by today's standards, are deemed to be inadequate for their needs.
And now he is calling on the Government to resume the building of Council houses - after a gap of almost 25 years - and that in Colchester all the "social housing" part of the proposed development of the former Garrison, some 500 of the 2,000 homes proposed there, should be three and four-bed roomed family houses. "The last thing we want in Colchester is more flats which are not suitable for young families," he explained today.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Russell said: "Hundreds of thousands of children are still living in poverty, by the Government's definition. If the Government accepts that housing is a crucial part of removing children from poverty, will Ministers prevail on the new Prime Minister to reverse 25 years of housing policy failure and restore Council house building?"
Responding to Mr Russell, who had questioned whether the Government's 2010 child poverty target would be reached, Welfare Reform Minister Mr Jim Murphy MP avoided answering the specific question and said that over the past decade child poverty in the UK had fallen faster than in any other majority economy - before adding: "But we have to go further to achieve our target."
He also claimed that the Labour Government had invested more in housing than any previous Government, although he avoided admitting that this had not included the building of Council houses which in ten years of a Labour Government has totalled fewer than 5,000 new homes in England and Wales.
In support of his call for a resumption of building Council houses, Mr Russell has Tabled a Motion which has already received cross-Party support from 37 MPs. This calls on the Government to "provide the encouragement and resources to enable every local authority" to build Council houses to the level achieved during the third quarter of the 20th Century when annually around 200,000 local authority homes were built.
Mr Russell today said: "Overcrowding is a major issue in Colchester, as witnessed by the many families who attend my Advice Bureau and others who write to me. This was not the case 25 years ago, but the housing policies of successive Governments since the early 1980s has resulted in the massive sale of Council houses and the failure to build replacement homes.
"Colchester is a prosperous town in a prosperous county in the world's fourth richest economy, but we have a housing crisis affecting thousands of children in our own town as is also the case in many other parts of Britain. Housing associations are doing what they can, but they are constrained by lack of money from the Government to build the number of family houses which are needed."
He pointed out that 2,000 new homes were planned for the former Garrison. "If the 500 so-called social housing homes are a 50-50 mixture of three and four bed roomed houses then that would make a huge difference to the hundreds of families who currently live in housing which is over-crowded or in flats which generally are not as good for children.
"What I am saying is: we know that there is going to be residential development on the Garrison, at least 2,000 new dwellings, but let's say No to yet more flats and Yes to family houses for those local families who are in need of a decent home in which to live."
The issue of the need to build new Council houses is a subject which in the past Mr Russell has directly challenged both Prime Minister Tony Blair and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott during Questions in the House of Commons. Liberal Democrat Mr Russell has also had a full debate on the need to resume the building of Council houses, and has tabled numerous Parliamentary Questions.
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