Cllr Steve McKenna (Green, Redhill East) said: “The pressure on local people to get an affordable place to live is at its highest level ever. It is becoming a distant dream to own or even afford a privately rented home locally as the growth in house prices and rents continues to outstrip salaries.
“The Conservatives haven’t spent any of the money allocated in 2019 on new affordable homes (except for temporary and emergency accommodation to address homelessness). This is completely unacceptable. We need, more than ever, to deliver genuinely affordable homes.”
Green group leader Cllr Jonathan Essex (Green, Redhill East) said: “We urge the council not to raid the affordable housing budget. We urge them instead to scale up their capacity to meet the growing shortfall of affordable homes as a matter of urgency – while putting in place sensible low-cost plans to lock-in long-term community use of our council owned assets across the borough.
“Safeguarding local ownership of council-owned assets is important but can be done differently – by giving community groups long leases on council-owned buildings at peppercorn rents. The current council plan could mean that the whole budget for affordable housing is spent buying buildings that are not at risk of being lost by the creation of the new unitary authority.”
He added: “The current proposals are opaque, vague and ill-defined. Why are the Conservatives so desperate, in the run-up to local elections, to give away the cash needed for affordable housing?
