Horsham Labour Party's Chair, David Hide, wrote to the West Sussex County Times in response to comments by various Tories about top-down housing targets.He pointed out the failure of the council to meet its own targets: a failure also picked up by the Audit Commission.
The letter was printed today and the full text is below:
Tory-run Horsham District Council has failed, once more, to reach its own very unambitious target of delivering just 80 affordable homes each year.
The latest figures show that it fell back from a high of 72 in 2007-8 to just 53 in 2008-9.
Little wonder the Audit Commission website states that the council's performance is only adequate and that it is 'not performing well enough and not improving fast enough' in its delivery of affordable housing.
Tory council leader Robert Nye's response, as quoted in the County Times on December 25th, was to dismiss the findings of the audit commission as 'target-obsessed and over-controlling'.
I would like to know what is so wrong in wanting to deliver on the target of providing the most basic of human rights, which should be available to all residents within Horsham, namely affordable and appropriate housing.
It should be remembered that the targets that Mr. Nye appears to find so objectionable, in this case in respect to affordable housing, are targets agreed and set by Horsham District Council, and not those imposed top-down from central government.
Horsham Labour Party will continue to highlight the council's failure to respond adequately to the local housing need as we believe that the thousands of local residents who wait patiently on the council's housing waiting list deserve better.
We have sent additional evidence to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Governmant in respect of the Berkely Homes West of Horsham development.
This evidence is designed to reinforce our request to call in the council's decision which saw it cave in to the demands of developers by slashing the percentage of affordable housing from 40 to just 20.
David Hide
Chair, Horsham Labour Party