• News & events
• Archived news releases
• 2009 archived press releases
• Unite London cab drivers demonstrate against convicted killer undergoing the Knowledge
• MSPs join Diageo workers to take the pledge to fight for Scottish jobs
• MSP denounced by Unite for supping at Diageo's table while workers' jobs in peril
• Unite welcomes retention of Scottish Agricultural Wages Board
• Unite in Scotland pledges support to Dublin dockers in bitter dispute over sackings
• 2,000 new council houses – ‘a welcome step in the right direction, but ministers need to move further and faster’
• Unite urges Two Sisters to reinstate workers, their union reps and act on racial abuse allegations
• Two Sisters update
• More cuts at Lloyds means more confusion and uncertainty
• Unite condemns Fujitsu’s proposals to slash 1,200 jobs

2,000 new council houses – ‘a welcome step in the right direction, but ministers need to move further and faster’

9 September 2009

Welcoming the announcement of 2,000 new council homes, Unite today said the government needs to move ‘faster and further’ to tackle the severe shortage of social and council housing.

Unite, the largest union in the country, welcomed today's (Wednesday, 9 September) announcement by Housing Minister, John Healey that work is to begin on building more than 2,000 council homes, but said the government  needs ‘to put its foot on the accelerator’.

Unite Deputy General Secretary, Jack Dromey said: ‘This welcome step will help build Britain out of recession, providing desperately needed affordable homes and much needed jobs and apprenticeships. But the scale of housing need demands yet more ambitious action and we want the government to go further and faster.’

Unite Assistant General Secretary for the Public Sector, Gail Cartmail said: ‘Councils have a key role to play in meeting housing need and must act quickly in turning this investment into real homes. The foot needs to go on the accelerator to alleviate the very long waiting lists for social and council housing.’
                                   
Earlier this year, Unite unveiled its blueprint, Meeting housing need: Building Britain out of recession which called for a ‘massive’ council and social house building programme for the 4.5million people on waiting lists.

Such a programme could act as an engine for economic revival generally, by creating thousands of jobs in the construction industry and its suppliers.

-ends-

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS:

Unite is uniquely placed  to comment on the current housing situation, having as it does members in housing associations, local government, and the construction and finance sectors.

For further information, please contact:

Jack Dromey 07976 833 362, Gail Cartmail 07768 931 305, Shaun Noble, Communications Officer 020 7420 8951 or 07768 693 940.

• Share on:
• Delicious
• Digg
• reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

Want to share this story? These sites allow you to tag and share links across the internet enabling you to share these links with friends and people with similar interests. You can also access your links from any computer you happen to be using.