News from Westminster Labour

Westminster Tories to give new homes to non-residents

Westminster City Council is to offer intermediate housing at special mortgage rates to non-residents. Labour Councillors say that the qualifying salary level of £30,000 for the Council’s intermediate housing initiative means that many Westminster residents doing essential, but lower paid work, like nurses, social workers, street cleansing and waste disposal personnel, will not qualify for this housing. The Conservatives say that the scheme will not work at lower salary levels.

Councillor Guthrie McKie, Labour’s Spokesperson for Housing, says:

“It is breathtaking. At a time when we have a serious housing crisis with 2,500 families living in overcrowded accommodation and many other families living in damp homes, the Council is giving priority to people who don’t live in Westminster. There is land available in Westminster to start a major house building programme. The North Wharf Road site is owned by the Council and yet it is planning to sell it to the highest bidder. The site in Edgware Road, next to Paddington Green police station, has been vacant for nearly 20 years and yet the Council refuses to seek a compulsory purchase order so that it can be developed. Not much has changed in Westminster’s housing policies over the past 20 years. Existing residents in housing need should be the priority and we will fight for more new homes for Westminster residents.”

Other news from Westminster Labour

• Twelve questions for the next Leader of Westminster Council - 10 February 2012
• Westminster Council joint bottom of London league for Adult Social Care - 6 February 2012
• Westminster Labour calls for an 'outbreak of democracy' over election of new council Leader - 2 February 2012