David Hide, Chair of Horsham Labour, wrote to the West Sussex County Times today to highlight Horsham council's failings in the area of affordable housing provision, and draws attention to his letter to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on this topic.The full text of the letter is reproduced below.
Dear Letters Editor
Tory Council Fail to meet Own, not Government targets.
Tory run Horsham District Council has failed once more, to reach its own, very un-ambitious target of delivering just 80 affordable homes each year . The latest figures show that it fell back from a high of 72 in 2007/08 to just 53 in 2008/09.
Little wonder the audit commission website states that the Council’s overall 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 25 December, 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 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.
This week we have sent additional evidence to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in respect of the Berkley 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 the developers by slashing the percentage of affordable housing from 40% to just 20%.
David Hide
Chair Horsham Labour Party