Keighley MP in call for more social housin (From Keighley News)

Keighley MP in call for more social housin

2:00pm Monday 11th March 2013 in Keighley

Keighley’s MP is calling on the Government to provide more money for social housing projects in the town.

Kris Hopkins said across the district, tens of thousands of people are on waiting lists for properties.

During a Commons debate on changes to housing benefit, he stressed the importance – in the current climate – of helping people onto the property ladder.

“I encourage the Minister for Housing to make efforts to spend his limited money – some £300 million has been allocated for developing social housing – in areas such as Bradford’s canal corridor and on the excellent community scheme at Spring Bank in Keighley,” he said.

Mr Hopkins, who chairs the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Housing Board, accused the previous government of failing to build sufficient social housing.

And he pledged to work to ensure quality homes would be provided.

On housing benefits, he said the current £23 billion annual bill cost each individual family in the country £900 a year, which he described as “unsustainable”.

“The housing benefit budget has doubled in ten years on the back of the previous government’s economic failure and mismanagement,” he said.

“We have to spend within our means. The public rightly expects us to get a grip on the benefits regime.”

He told MPs it was also important to promote what the government was doing to help adapt accommodation for disabled people.

“If someone lives in accommodation that has been significantly adapted for a disabled person, they will be entitled to a discretionary housing payment,” he said.

“Some £30 million of the government’s discretionary payment has been specifically aimed at foster carers and disabled people who have made changes to their homes.

“And when the disability means the household needs an extra room, local authorities have been allocated a further £150 million to make discretionary payments.”