Labour ‘leaves homes empty while blocking private new-builds’

Conservatives said thousands of flats and houses owned by Labour boroughs were 'gathering dust'
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Labour town hall chiefs in London were today accused of leaving council houses lying empty while blocking new homes from being built by the private sector.

Conservatives said thousands of flats and houses owned by Labour boroughs were “gathering dust”, despite huge waiting lists of families desperate to move in.

But at the same time, they said, plans that could have led to 16,000 new homes being built in the capital to ease the housing shortage had been turned down by Labour-run local authorities.

The accusations come on the eve of elections in the 32 London boroughs, in which housing has emerged as one of the most hotly contested areas.

Government figures show Labour boroughs in London take seven places in the top 20 councils for the number of empty council homes. Southwark had 789 empty local authority properties, the most in the country, with 6,665 families waiting for a place to live.

Greenwich had 639 and 12,000 families on the waiting list. Others in the top 20 were Camden (610 empty homes), Newham (586), Ealing (530), Hackney (524) and Enfield (413).

Tory MP Chris Philp claimed: “Thanks to Labour’s incompetence, thousands of homes are sitting empty, when they could be used by families who need them. Labour need to get serious about managing their councils so that they stop wasting resources and start providing homes for people.”

He accused Labour councils of blocking planned house building, including at Haringey where a redevelopment to create 6,400 new inner city homes in partnership with a company was halted by Left-wingers from the Momentum group, which supports Jeremy Corbyn. The row led to Labour leader Claire Kober being forced to resign.

Labour rejected the criticism, saying their record was actually better because they had so many more council homes than Tory boroughs.

They said Southwark’s empty homes amounted to just two per cent of its 38,520 council properties, and accused Tories of “a desperate attempt” to distract from the Government removing council powers to force empty homes back into use.

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