1000 waiting for State homes, says M.P.

Press, 5 September 1983, Page 6

1000 waiting for State homes, says M.P.

Parliamentary reporter A thousand people were on the waiting list for State houses but there were not enough, said the Labour member of Parliament for Yaldhurst, Mr M. A. Connelly, in his Budget speech. The Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander, had recently written to one of his constituents saying that he could not have a State house because there was a waiting list of 1000.

“I believe he had a very good case for rental accommodation,” Mr Connelly said. “Everyone knows there is a demand for thousands

of houses. The number on the waiting list is so high because the Government has stiffened its eligibility criteria.

“If there are 1000 people on the waiting list that must mean that the Government is conceding there are insuffient houses,” Mr Connelly said.

“Although the Government says there has been a 12 per cent increase in rental accommodation since 1975, the Government has not built enough rental accommodation in the last few years to offset the number of rental houses it has sold.”

In the last two years the Government had sold 1600 rental houses, and in the same period built 900 houses.

“There is no quicker way to run down housing stocks,” Mr Connelly said. Since 1975, Government spending on works, roads, and housing had fallen each year to a cumulative total of $7.5 billion short of Labour government spending. “Is it any wonder that builders, contractors, and manufacturers have gone to the wall, and there are no jobs available,” Mr Connelly said.