The Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP
Minister of State for Communities and Local Government
Eland House
Bressenden Place
LONDON
SW1E 5DU

19 November 2010

Dear Grant,

Affordable Housing

The great difficulties that many of my constituents face in finding affordable housing is a recurring issue at my surgeries, and I'm sure at those of many of my fellow MPs.

That is why I and 96 other Members have signed EDM 255 - Mention the Housing Crisis Campaign, which reads as follows:

That this House welcomes the mention the housing crisis campaign; notes that two million households are predicted to be on housing waiting lists by 2011 and that over two million vulnerable children are living in unsatisfactory housing; further notes that, in March 2010, the current housing minister said `We will put our proposals to a very simple test: have we built more homes?'; further notes that poor quality, overcrowded housing damages children's educational attainment and subsequent earnings potential and that according to research commissioned by the National Housing Federation, health problems relating to poor housing cost the country nearly 2.5 billion a year in treatment and time off work; urges the Government not to ignore the housing crisis; and calls on the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to safeguard the building of social rented and affordable homes in the forthcoming spending review.

I am sure that colleagues who signed this EDM share my disappointment at what the Comprehensive Spending Review means for housing. The estimated 60% cuts to the investment in capital spend in housing to £4.4bn will inevitably mean fewer social rented and affordable intermediate homes are built over the next four years. These cuts have lead many in the housing sector to judge that the Government's target of delivering up to 150,000 new affordable homes over the spending review period now looks very optimistic. Even if your target is met, Shelter states that 150,000 represents less than a third of the new affordable homes needed over the next 4 years to meet current need.

Understandably, many of my constituents are greatly concerned by this situation. In 2009 Brighton and Hove had 9,546 households on it housing waiting list, whilst only 232 additional affordable homes were provided in the latest year with outrun figures - 2008/09.

How can you justify cutting investment in housing when the need is so great and when this investment can also create much needed jobs? Research has shown that for every £1 that is cut from housing investment, £3.50 is lost from the wider economy. Rather than cutting housing investment, the Government should take the opportunity to develop new skills and create jobs in sustainable house building, delivering the homes that are desperately needed and ensuring that by 2016 every new home is zero carbon.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP, Brighton Pavilion

Read the Minister's reply