Greg to present Council motion on affordable housing (Greg Stone)

Greg to present Council motion on affordable housing

February 25, 2007 12:33 PM

Greg has tabled a motion to the March meeting of Newcastle City Council next Wednesday, asserting the Lib Dem run council's commitment to delivering successful regeneration including provision of new affordable homes and refurbishment of existing social housing. He also calls upon the Government to honour its commitment to providing central funding for the Decent Homes and Pathfinder programmes amidst reports the Government's spending review may revise funding arrangements for these schemes, and calls on the Government to curb the Highways Agency's interference in the regeneration of Tyneside.

Motion To Council:

Council

commends the success of the board, the staff, and the tenants of Your Homes Newcastle in delivering the Decent Homes Programme in Newcastle and in bringing forward proposals for the first new build council-owned properties in the city for many years.
notes that the shortage of affordable housing and social housing in many parts of the city is a direct result of the policy promoted by the previous Labour administration of demolishing thousands of social housing units coupled with their failure to deliver housing-led regeneration in the period to 2004
endorses the recent Hills report to Government which identifies the importance of creating greater housing mix by facilitating the provision of social housing in areas of predominantly private sector housing, and by utilising available land in areas of predominantly social housing to create affordable new private and shared equity housing.

Accordingly, Council reaffirms its commitment to work with its partners to deliver sustainable communities and neighbourhoods in accordance with the city's Housing Strategy and Regeneration Strategy, through delivery of both mixed tenure affordable housing and improved social housing.

However, Council notes with concern that the Government is seeking to breach its previous commitments by reprofiling forthcoming Decent Homes Standard expenditure by ALMOs, thus putting the timely completion of Newcastle's programme in jeopardy.

Council therefore resolves to petition the Government

(1) to honour its commitment to Your Homes Newcastle;

(2) to honour its commitment to the ongoing HMR Pathfinder programme:

(3) to remove obstacles to delivery of mixed-tenure sustainable communities in Newcastle such as the unjustified objections of the Highways Agency, as recently reported in the regional press.