Federation welcomes appointment of Grant Shapps as Housing Minister
Friday 21 May 2010
The National Housing Federation has welcomed the appointment of Grant Shapps as the new Housing Minister.
Federation chief executive David Orr has already established a close working relationship with Mr Shapps. Last year, the new Housing Minister appointed Mr Orr as chair of a mobility taskforce, which is exploring ways of making it easier for social housing tenants to move home.
Mr Orr said that he was confident Mr Shapps would work hard to promote the cause of affordable housing, but said it was critical he ensured the housing budget was protected from public spending cuts.
The Federation, which represents England’s housing associations, will seek a meeting with the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition administration as soon as possible.
Working closely
Federation chief executive David Orr said: 'We look forward to working closely with Mr Shapps, and his colleagues in the new coalition government, on ensuring that the nation gets the affordable housing it so desperately needs.
'Mr Shapps has demonstrated an expert knowledge of the challenges faced by our sector and understands the need to incentivise local communities to accept the building of new homes in their area.
'With record waiting lists for social homes, Dickensian levels of overcrowding in many of our cities, and a dramatic slump in house-building numbers, it’s clear that the need for more affordable housing has never been greater.
Challenges
'Leading financial experts predict government departments could see their budgets slashed by around 25% on average in order to protect spending on frontline health and education services.
'If cuts on this scale were applied to the housing sector, up to 600,000 planned affordable homes could be scrapped, waiting lists could soar to unimaginable new heights and millions of families could be condemned to living in substandard housing for generations. Given the scale of the crisis, the Government must offer the same protection to the housing budget.
'We will be making the sector’s concerns clear to the Prime Minister and the new Housing Minister and look forward to establishing a good working relationship with the coalition government.'
Mr Orr was appointed chair of Mr Shapps' mobility taskforce in November last year. It is due to report back its findings next month.
For further information, or to request an interview, please contact the Federation's press office on 0207 067 1028/07748 931286.
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