Hands off our money, Boris!
LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson has launched an audacious raid on Westcountry housing budgets, claiming the capital is a special case and deserves more money.
Ministers are resisting the plea for more cash to build affordable homes, insisting London has no automatic right to the "lion's share" of funding.
-
There are more than 68,000 people on the housing waiting list in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset alone, with thousands more across the wider South West region.
But Mr Johnson has claimed the Government should overlook the housing need in the region and other parts of England in favour of supporting London.
The top Conservative is demanding Labour housing minister John Healey gives him an even bigger share of the money, claiming the current deal has "not done justice" to the capital.
The Mayor of London suggests he is being short-changed despite getting an extra £207 million from the Government's National Affordable Housing Programme to build more cheap homes to rent or buy. In comparison, the entire South West region gets just £61 million.
It means the capital is already receiving the equivalent of around £590 for every person on the housing waiting list compared to less than £380 in the South West.
Mr Healey has hit back, vowing to protect housing grants in the South West and elsewhere and dismissing claims that London is bearing the brunt of the housing crisis. Mr Johnson hit out after ministers began to hand out Gordon Brown's £1.5 billion affordable housing package unveiled last month.
London has received a third less than it would have if the Government had followed an agreed funding formula, claims Mr Johnson.
In a letter to Mr Healey, he says: "We are disappointed about how this additional funding is being apportioned between the regions and believe that your approach fails to fully recognise London's housing needs."
He claims London is facing "exceptional pressures" on new homes because of a 350,000 waiting list for social housing and record numbers of people in temporary accommodation.
He also bemoans the fact the capital has received only £207 million extra from the national affordable housing programme. While London's housing needs have increased recently, "it is the opposite in other regions", he claims.
"We would also argue that in apportioning resources, you should consider not only the relative needs among regions, but also the wider cost to the public purse," he goes on. "Londoners who are unable to access affordable housing provision are forced to live in higher cost private sector accommodation."
Despite Mr Johnson's claims, housing need in the Westcountry has worsened dramatically in recent years. The number of people on waiting lists has doubled since Labour came to power in 1997.
Housing became a major Government priority when Mr Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister, but efforts to address the problem have been hampered by the economic downturn which has seen building work stall. Now Mr Healey, who was promoted to housing minister attending Cabinet in last month's reshuffle, has hit back at the London Mayor's attempt to secure more funding.
The minister last night vowed to protect allocations in other parts of the country.
"Other regions have unmet need for affordable housing too," he said.
Mr Healey added: "The Mayor of London might argue the real housing need in Britain is in London, and he's wrong. There's serious housing need across the country.
"You'd hardly find a local area anywhere in the country where there's not a need for new homes, particularly homes that people can afford to rent or buy.
"I've made clear to the Mayor that London has to prove itself because I will be looking for those areas which will build the homes rapidly.
"There's no automatic claim as London might like to think it has to the lion's share of the funding."
This week, Mr Healey announced plans to loan up to £12 million to developers in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset to kick-start work which has stalled on six building sites in the region.
It is hoped the plan will see construction begin within weeks on up to 450 new affordable homes.
53 Comments
View all
by George Fairbank, Tiverton
Monday, August 03 2009, 5:57PM
“I am quite disappointed, I suppose, at seeing so much genuinely clever social commentary edited from this site.
It may have been somewhat benignly irrelevant, but was benign nonetheless, and one would hope, entertaining to some degree.
Newspapers have been my business for all my life, and I therefore believe that there is a place for the quirky, inconsequential comment, but only if it did not harm anyone. There is not a great deal of space for this nowadays, unfortunately.
I am therefore opting out to pursue my proper business interests.
Enjoy the rest of your WMN, and thanks for the engagement we've had over the months.
GF”
by a g rawlings, truro
Sunday, August 02 2009, 9:22PM
“Supply and demand means what it say's, it is nothing to do with being superior in intelligence. Hence the reason
footballers get more a week than solicitor and most barristers. I hope you can see what supply and demand means. May I thank you for trying to answer my questions, I'm not as mad as some people think.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Sunday, August 02 2009, 9:12PM
“:| AG; 1. No, 2. Yes(more or less), 3.No.
The vast majority of bricklayers are just not smart enough to be solicitors or lawyers. . That is an indisputable fact. . And I am sure many other politicians have felt the way EP did also. . But few, as now, are ever prepared to face down their critics. . Now I really am going.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Sunday, August 02 2009, 8:38PM
“:| 'Supply and Demand' and 'The Market Place' is what makes the USA the worlds great Superpower producing 30% of the world's GDP.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Sunday, August 02 2009, 8:23PM
“:| There was only one politician who ever had the courage to talk about the problem, but he was vilified and turned into a pariah by the establishment. . They destroyed the career of one of the most intelligent politicians this country has ever known in my opinion. . His famous speech commenced, "The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature. One is that by the very order of things such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred: At each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they be real or imaginary." . . People should have heeded the following words by Niccolo Machiavelli. . Of course just never did. . ¿It happens then as it does to physicians in the treatment of Consumption, which in the commencement is easy to cure and difficult to understand; but when it has neither been discovered in due time nor treated upon a proper principle, it becomes easy to understand and difficult to cure. The same thing happens in state affairs; by foreseeing them at a distance, which is only done by men of talents, the evils which might arise from them are soon cured; but when, from want of foresight, they are suffered to increase to such a height that they are perceptible to everyone, there is no longer any remedy.¿”
by a g rawlings, truro
Sunday, August 02 2009, 8:18PM
“Did Thatcher say that wages would find there own level with supply and demand?”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Sunday, August 02 2009, 6:06PM
“:| If they had attempted to force all counties to endure the mass immigration equally; would it have continued to happen at all?. . Well I think the answer is 'NO'.”
by Dave Joslin, St Austell
Sunday, August 02 2009, 10:55AM
“Holman and Kris are both right. The problem with second homes is greed. That is true of the sellers, estate agents, solicitors and the buyers. How with so many homeless youngsters struggling on low Cornish wages anyone form outside is allowed to price them out of a home I can only put down to greed. With the lowest wages highest utility charges and highest house prices they, the locals, don't stand a chance. Build more homes for rent and make them wholly for locals.”
by a g rawlings, truro
Saturday, August 01 2009, 10:43AM
“Getting back to Boris, I don't think he is totally wrong, London and the home counties have been inundated
with mass imigration and many illegal people. With the full support of all the parties to what has happened every county should be forced to except a fair amount. Sadly this is not happening in Cornwall, hence Boris's statement. Let us all understand if you vote for a system, then please take your share.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Saturday, August 01 2009, 9:03AM
“:| Of course. . I forgot! . . It was all Margaret Thatcher's fault! . She didn't rescue this country from being the poor man of Europe at all. . The Winter of Discontent didn't happen, and we didn't have to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund at all. . :( Oh dear! . I MUST HAVE IMAGINED IT ALL!”