Christian Charity Welcomes Brown's Commitment to Housing

Housing Justice this week has welcomed the commitment given by Gordon Brown to increase the construction of affordable housing in Britain.

|PIC1|Speaking on BBC1's Sunday AM programme Mr Brown said that if he were to become Prime Minister he would direct a major increase in social housing.

Mr Brown acknowledged that in recent years the number of new homes being built had fallen short of demand and stated that his government would build more rented social housing as well as affordable housing for sale.

Housing Justice describes itself as "the national voice of Christian action to prevent homelessness and bad housing".

The Chief Executive of Housing Justice, Alison Gelder, commented: "Gordon Brown's commitments to increase the supply of affordable housing are very welcome.

"When implemented they will begin to address Britain's housing shortage and should offer some hope to the 90,000 homeless families in temporary accommodation as well as the 1.7 million families on housing waiting lists."

The latest Government figures show that in 2006, a total of 160,234 new homes were built , yet by the end of the last quarter, there were 89,510 households in temporary accommodation under the terms of the homelessness legislation and 1,631,187 households on local authority housing waiting lists.

The 2004 Barker Review recommended increasing the number of new homes being built each year by over 140,000 a year to meet demand - 120,000 homes in the private sector and 23,000 in the social housing sector.

Gelder added: "We look forward to the greater prominence that affordable housing will be given in Government policy after years of neglect.

"If, as expected, Gordon Brown is elected as Labour Party leader he can quickly put his words into action by making funds available for house building in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review."

Mr Brown has also spoken of the importance of building strong communities and recognised the contribution that faith groups can make to this process. This was welcomed by Alison Gelder who said: "It is no good just building houses, we must ensure that community facilities such as schools, halls and churches are built as well.

"I'm pleased to see that the Chancellor has recognised the key role that churches and other faith groups have to play in creating strong cohesive sustainable communities."