Good Housing Schemes Were Ditched With Prescott

[Gerrard Winstanley]

Good scheme this - below - but the Housing Corporation seem to have 
been working in the interests of the housebuilders federation! As soon 
as Prescott's gone the idea is scrapped. How nice for housebuilding 
company profits.
Under the other scheme Prescott had arranged a competition for 
housebuilding companies to submit innovative affordable housing 
designs for government land. Two of the ten winners were Irish 
Companies by the way! 
The winners are getting the land for a fraction of the commercial 
rate. That scheme is to be scrapped too now!
Prescott was also here in Bristol making advanced plans for DoE money 
to be made available for the celebration of 200 years since the 
abolition of slavery. While the local Chamber of Commerce is doing 
everything it can to scupper the plance Prescott was insisting that 
DoE be spent on the celebrations. That's now down the pan too.
Come back Mr Prescott - you've been knobbled!
Tony


Prescott's housing scheme ditched
By Neil Tweedie
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/20/
nkey20.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/20/ixuknews.html

John Prescott's scheme to provide affordable housing for key public 
sector workers in high-cost areas has been effectively ditched 
following the disclosure to parliament last month that more than half 
the homes built for sale remained empty.

The £725 million key worker living programme, championed by the Deputy 
Prime Minister at its launch, was intended to ensure that nurses, 
teachers, policemen, social workers and other vital public employees 
on relatively low salaries were given access to affordable homes, 
particularly in London and the South East.

But yesterday the Housing Corporation, the quango which oversees the 
scheme, said restrictions on the kind of worker entitled to apply for 
the properties were being dropped. 

Anyone living in social housing or entered on a waiting list for 
social housing will be eligible to buy unsold flats and houses, as 
well as properties due to be built in the next two years.

The decision, revealed in a leak to the magazine Inside Housing, 
follows criticism about the size, quality and particularly the 
location of the homes on offer, as well as their sometimes very high 
price.

People in the key worker category were said to be unhappy about the 
prospect of living in public sector "ghettoes", in often unattractive 
areas, with some flats costing over £200,000.

In a parliamentary answer published last month, the Government 
disclosed that only 615 out of 1,393 houses built for sale to key 
workers had been sold, despite offers of loans or low-cost "part-buy, 
part-rent" arrangements. In contrast, there was strong demand for the 
1,424 properties built for rent, with 1,201 taken up.