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Greens call for more council housing

Sheffield Green party councillors say more council housing will reduce national expenditure.

The four Green councillors on Sheffield City Council have called for more council housing to be built, to combat the losses of good social housing through right-to-buy and the council’s large-scale demolition schemes.

Douglas Johnson, Green Councillor for City ward, said,

“Private landlords benefited from £9.3 billion of public subsidy through housing benefit, double the sum from just 10 years earlier.”

“Sheffield has lost nearly half of its social housing in the last 20 years for two reasons – the right to buy scheme and the Labour council’s decision to demolish thousands of homes. We now need the Government to fund an urgent increase in public sector housing.”

Notes:

  1. The Green councillors’ statement was made in an amendment to a motion to the meeting of Sheffield City council on 7 September 2016, by Cllrs Douglas Johnson and Alison Teal. The agenda is at http://sheffielddemocracy.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=6351
  2. The Green amendment:
    (e) notes the drastic loss of Sheffield’s council housing stock through the right-to-buy policy and by Sheffield City Council’s large-scale demolition schemes;
    (f) also notes that, despite the misery of escalating private rents, landlords benefitted from £9.3 billion in housing benefit payments in 2014-15, double the sum from 10 years previously; and
    (g) therefore believes that increasing the supply of good quality council housing will save national expenditure.
  3. “Average Sheffield rental deposit almost £600” Star 6 Sep 16 at http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/average-sheffield-rental-deposit-almost-600-1-8108380/
  4. National Housing Federation briefing paper at http://www.housing.org.uk/resource-library/browse/the-growing-housing-benefit-spend-in-the-private-rented-sector/

Topics: City Wide, Council, Douglas Johnson, Featured, Housing