MP calls for affordable homes action (From Daily Echo)
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MP Alan Whitehead wants to see more affordable housing in Southampton
1:10pm Tuesday 31st January 2012 in Southampton
Minister Andrew Stunell.
A GOVERNMENT minister has been lobbied over the lack of affordable housing in Southampton.
The average family in the city would have to spend nine times their income to be able to buy an house in the city, Southampton Test Labour MP Alan Whitehead said.
S p e a k i n g during Local Government Questions at Westminster yesterday, Dr W h i t e h e a d told MPs that rents were also spiralling in the city, adding: “What is the minister intending to do to take people out of this trap?”
The Government New Homes Bonus scheme, which aims to encourage councils to increase house-building levels, would only produce 70 per cent of those built under the previous administration, he added.
But Liberal Democrat Minister Andrew Stunell said another 170,000 new homes would have been built across the country by the end of this Parliament.
This was a “net increase”
from Labour’s reign, he added.
