The director of Shelter has criticised the three main political parties for “giving away” taxpayers’ money to promote homeownership in the midst of a growing temporary accommodation crisis.

Speaking at the launch of a report into the housing problems of Britain’s children on Thursday, and attended by politicians from all three parties, Adam Sampson added that none of the parties had pledged enough resources to tackle the situation (HT 18 March, page 13).

“Fifty years ago … we would have had a competition about how many [new homes] the parties were going to build,” he said. “That is conspicuously not the case now. What we have now is a willingness to give away taxpayers’ money to promote homeownership. Despite the fact one hears promises about tackling temporary accommodation, what we haven’t heard is similar ways that they are going to invest in that.”

The report, Generation Squalor, summed up the findings of Shelter’s investigations into bad housing.

It found evidence of children living in terrible conditions and revealed some youngsters were getting misshapen skulls because lack of space is forcing parents to keep them in pushchairs for substantial periods of the day.

Housing minister Keith Hill said: “We have doubled investment in housing since 1997. Shelter has been very supportive of the Communities Plan and the work we have done to tackle homelessness.”

Source

Housing Today