TUC calls for more social housing
Young workers will not be able to live in their own homes unless the government authorises more social housing construction, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) believes.The government currently plans on earmarking spending for 30,000 social housing units for rent every year over the 2008-11 period as part of its efforts to balance out the supply side of the demand-heavy UK residential housing market.The TUC argues this is not enough, saying 50,000 affordable homes should be constructed in this period.To publicise the problem of Britain's highly-oversubscribed social housing requirements, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber will travel to the Glastonbury festival this weekend to argue on behalf of almost two million people who he claims are not being properly housed."The high cost of property in our towns, cities and rural areas is also forcing many of our key public sector workers to move further and further away from their places of work," he said."Having a decent place to live within a reasonable commute of your job is not much toask for our hard-working nurses, teachers, firefighters and other public sector employees."One of Gordon Brown's first tasks as prime minister should be to give the green light to housing associations and local authorities to build more decent, affordable homes for rent."A government-commissioned report published earlier this year called focussed on improving the current housing stock.Communities secretary Ruth Kelly said at the time social housing had benefited from increased investment in recent years.But housing charity Shelter believes there are currently 1.6 million people on waiting lists for properties falling under the social housing umbrella.
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