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Middle classes 'need homes'
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent14 Jan 2009
LONDONERS on middle incomes should be able to rent social housing, a Tory MP will argue today.
Mark Field will tell the Commons that a growing number of areas in the capital are now inhabited only by people who are extremely affluent or very poor.
The MP for Westminster and the Cities of London was due to say in a debate on social housing: "People on middle to low incomes are increasingly being pushed out of the area. With the neediest households receiving priority for housing, my constituency is now exclusively home to the super rich and very poor. This is not a healthy state of affairs."
He urged ministers to relax rent policy for housing associations to allow them to offer homes to better off people, on as much as £40,000, as well as graduates.
Town hall leaders have warned that two million families could be on the waiting list for social housing across the country within two years because they will be unable to buy or rent a private property.
Mr Field says the Government's bid to build three million new homes by 2020 is doomed.
Reader views (4)
Who was it that brought in the "right to buy", resulting in the supply of council housing becoming available to relet plummeting so that only those in desperate need get it and there is this big middle ground of people who don't stand a chance of social housing allocation but also don't stand a chance of buying?
- Matthew Huntbach, Eltham, 15/01/2009 08:52
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I don't think this should come as a great surprise and it has been coming for a few years; well before the current climate. The price of housing has been pushed out of many people's reach and I for one welcome a continued decline in house prices - my regret is that I don't think they will come down enough to make them affordable to many people. Also I feel greatly for people who had to borrow a large amount to obtain a home which had an over inflated price. At the end of the day people need somewhere to live. You either buy, rent or have to live on the streets which then makes it very difficult if not impossible to have a job. If you buy a house and it is your home, which for the majority it is, then a decline in price should not matter unless you have to move to get work or for other reasons such as being closer to parents to help them for example. Then having a mortgage amount on what you had to borrow for an over inflated price means you have a very large debt. I think that the majority of house prices need to reflect the average income in this country and they do not. The country needs good quality housing at an affordable price; is this not a good time to build such houses as the price of materials drop. People should not be forced to spend a huge amount of their income on having a home. Having a home with all the benefits it provides a person and families help to improve a societies well being in many ways and would undermine much of the ills we see in our society.
- Cel, Wales, 15/01/2009 00:30
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And what are the Consrvative's plans for building more Social Housing?
Maybe the Conservatives, including Mark Field and Boris should support Labour's bid to build three million new homes by 2020 instead of whingeing about it and doing nothing.
David Cameron's comments on this are awaited in the vain hope that he has a policy on this.
- Andrew W1, London, 14/01/2009 20:40
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Wow, how is that for social mobility Miss Harman? Bet you dont support it.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 14/01/2009 10:49
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