LIB DEMS CALL FOR MORE HOUSING HELP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 10th Sep 2009

Carol Woods, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Durham, has welcomed news of 28 new council houses to be built in Durham and expressed her wish that more is done to help people looking for a home.

Carol said, "The recession means waiting lists for Council houses are getting even longer. This announcement is a start but much more is required to meet demand. The Lib Dem Council managed to build 1000 affordable homes in its time in control and I would hope that that good work would be continued by the new Council."

Carol also commented on the Government decision to allow councils to keep the money from Right to Buy housing sales.

She said "Durham City Council was forced to hand over almost £20 million to the government during the time that the Lib Dems were in charge. Had we been able to keep it we could have invested it directly into Durham rather than have it disappear into the central Government black-hole.

"It is a bit ironic that the government has changed the rules in the middle of a recession when house purchases are at an all-time low. We will be asking them to back date it to 2004 when Gordon Brown started taking money from our area to fund housing projects in the South East. This is another area in which our Labour MP failed to stand up for the best interests of local people."