ISLINGTON Council calls for Government to cut ‘red tape’ to help build hundreds more council homes
Islington Council has urged the Government to use the Spring Budget Statement to help the council build hundreds more badly-needed council homes.
In the press realise published by the Islington Council it has been stated that the council is currently delivering Islington’s largest council house building programme for a generation, with 500 new council homes between 2015 and 2019, in addition to 1,500 more genuinely affordable homes for social rent and shared ownership.
Despite that, due to the Government financial rules, the council’s ambitions to build many more council homes are being restricted.
In reference to the statement, contemporarily, 60% of homes the council builds are for council rent, with 40% for open market sale; with the receipts from the open market sale homes used to finance the building of the council homes. Lifting the restriction would allow the council to increase this ratio, so that 85 per cent of all homes the council builds are homes for council rent.
Cllr Diarmaid Ward, Executive Member for Housing and Development, said: “Islington Council is building more new council homes, prioritised for local people, than any time in the last 30 years. Next year we will build 200 new council homes, thanks to investment we have chosen to make, despite ongoing massive Government cuts to the council’s core funding.”