Housing Justice News Release 14 May 2007
For immediate release

Housing Justice welcomes Brown’s commitment to housing
Housing Justice today welcomed the commitment given by Gordon Brown to increase affordable house building in Britain.

Speaking on BBC1’s Sunday AM programme Mr Brown said that as Prime Minister he will direct a major increase in the social housing.

Gordon Brown acknowledged that in recent years the number of new homes being built has fallen short of demand and stated that his government will build more rented social housing as well as affordable housing for sale.

Chief Executive of Housing Justice Alison Gelder commented “Gordon Brown’s commitments to increase the supply of affordable housing are very welcome. When implemented they will begin to address Britain’s housing shortage and should offer some hope to the 90,000 homeless families in temporary accommodation as well as the 1.7million families on housing waiting lists.”

“We look forward to the greater prominence that affordable housing will be given in government policy after years of neglect. If, as expected, Gordon Brown is elected as Labour Party leader he can quickly put his words into action by making funds available for house building in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.”

Mr Brown has also spoken of the importance of building strong communities and the contribution that faith groups can make to this process – this was welcomed by Alison Gelder who commented “it is no good just building houses, we must ensure that community facilities such as schools, halls and churches are built as well. I’m pleased to see that the Chancellor has recognised the key role that churches and other faith groups have to play in creating strong cohesive sustainable communities.”
Ends

Notes
The latest government figures show that
• 223,000 new households are formed every year in England
• In 2006 160,234 new homes were built -139,344 by private builders, 20,613 by housing associations and 277 by local authorities.
• At the end of the last quarter there were 89,510 households in temporary accommodation under the terms of the homelessness legislation
• 1,631,187 households are on local authority housing waiting lists
(source Department of Communities and Local Government)

The 2004 Barker Review recommended increasing the number of new homes being built each year by over 140,000 a year to meet demand – 120,000 homes in the private sector and 23,000 in the social housing sector

About Housing Justice
Housing Justice is the national voice of Christian action to prevent homelessness and bad housing.

Housing Justice was formed in April 2003 by the merger of two long-standing housing charities, the Catholic Housing Aid Society (CHAS) and the Churches National Housing Coalition (CNHC). In January 2006 Housing Justice merged with UNLEASH (Church Action on Homelessness in London).

Housing Justice brings together more than 60 years experience of working for change in the field of housing.

Housing Justice provides frontline services to people in housing need and campaigns to improve housing policy.

In total Housing Justice is actively involved in more than 35 communities across England and Wales .

The Housing Justice CHAS network of 12 housing advice centres –in Bradford, Bristol, Croydon, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Kingston upon Thames, Leeds, Central London, Middlesbrough, Oswestry and York- provide practical support to people with housing and related problems.

Housing Justice UNLEASH works to support church-based housing and homelessness projects in London . It is responsible for coordinating the Soup Run Forum.

Housing Justice Regenerate, funded by the government's Civil Renewal Unit, supports resident-led regeneration in 15 guide neighbourhoods across the UK . Regenerate brings together residents who have transformed their estates with those who want to embark on the regeneration process to share learning and offer support.

Housing Justice works with, and for, homeless and badly housed people of all denominations, and with those who have no religious beliefs. All our services are offered to the whole community and, wherever possible, we work in partnership with others who share our values, regardless of religious beliefs.

Further information on Housing Justice is available at www.housingjustice.org.uk

Contact
Luke Evans 020 7723 7273
Email media@housingjustice.org.uk