Housing regeneration bill welcomed by Unite

Housing regeneration bill welcomed by Unite

Housing regeneration bill welcomed by Unite

Unite, Britain’s largest union, today welcomed the publication of the Housing Regeneration Bill which pledges 3 million new affordable homes by 2020.

“Gordon Brown has listened to the millions struggling to buy or rent a home,” said Jack Dromey, Unite deputy general secretary.

Welcoming the promise to make it easier for councils to build council homes, Mr. Dromey added, “Council house building has collapsed from three hundred thousand to three hundred a year in a generation.

“The prejudice of Whitehall against town hall is now being replaced with a recognition of the key strategic role of councils as a builder and provider of affordable homes for rent,” he continued. “Real progress is being made but further progress will be necessary at the next stages on a greater level playing field.”

“Homes for all is now centre stage,” concluded Mr. Dromey. But, he warned, the mistakes of the past must not be repeated.

“Never again crumbling council houses in ghetto estates, the high rise nightmares of the 1960s,” he said. “Instead, well designed homes, green homes, homes in mixed communities with good facilities, rural homes as well as homes in towns and cities. Council homes so good that to walk down the road in any street in Britain in future is to be unable to tell the difference between council homes and private.”

ENDS

Unite, which was formed on 1st May 2007 from a merger of amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G)

For further information please call the Unite Press Office on 020 7611 2550

Andrew Dodgshon

Unite Press Office

020 7611 2550

07976 832156

adodgshon@tgwu.org.uk