Nick Brown badly out of touch on new council house plans (Greg Stone)

Nick Brown badly out of touch on new council house plans

September 9, 2009 2:15 PM

Newcastle East Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman Greg Stone has criticised comments by Labour MP Nick Brown as "either ill informed or deliberately misleading", after the Labour politician leaked information to the Evening Chronicle about an announcement on new council house building programmes, suggesting that Newcastle City Council was at fault for not bidding for new council house funding.

Greg Stone said "Nick Brown is badly out of touch on this matter. Under Labour no new council homes were built for decades. Under Lib Dem leadership the council has already secured funding to build the first new council housing in the city since 1987 in partnership with Your Homes Newcastle.

"The first of these homes have now been completed and occupied and the council has been commended for its approach by the Homes and Communities Agency. This puts us ahead of the game and ensures that people will be able to access new homes well before the new units announced today will be completed"

"I think it is deeply unfortunate that the Minister is not supporting our success and is once again choosing to make comments that are either ill-informed or deliberately misleading. I am happy to reassure him that far from failing to bid, we have already prepared plans to deliver even more additional housing through our second-round bid, and I am keen to ensure this process continues to create new affordable social housing in the east of the city."

Note:

See http://www.publicsectorexecutive.com/dataview/News/News_Article.aspx?KeyValue=1217 for more information on Newcastle's new council housing programme

This report includes the following quote from the Homes and Communities Agency:

"We are delighted that YHN is the first ALMO in the region to have received direct National Affordable Housing Programme funding, which has already been used to develop the first council-backed housing provision in Newcastle in more than 20 years.

"We have created a very strong partnership with YHN and Newcastle City Council, they have demonstrated, along with their construction partners, that they are able to deliver homes for families and those with more specific needs, to a very high standard.

"One of our key objectives in the region is to address the high demand for good quality housing stock, which we know exists, especially in our cities. We now look forward to working closely with YHN and the city council as they continue to deliver these much-needed housing developments in Newcastle."