Julia slams Government on affordable housing scheme

10.00.00am GMT Mon 10th Mar 2008

Cornish MP Julia Goldsworthy has slammed the Government's failure on affordable housing - by highlighting how a £100m initiative to help first time buyers has housed just 700 people nationwide.

And just a handful of the beneficiaries have been in Cornwall - despite the county suffering the biggest gap between wages and house prices in the country.

Miss Goldsworthy, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Communities and Local Government, revealed the shocking figures in a speech at the party's Spring Conference on Saturday.

Highlighting how the Government wastes money on pet projects, she said: "The Government has spent £100m on a first-time buyers initiative which has housed just 700 people.

"How many more people could have found homes if that money had gone to local councils to support affordable housing, helping young people to stay in their communities?

"This is just one example of decisions taken too far away - they lead to unintended consequences, and a government that is detached from daily realities."

Between April 2006 and October 2007, the Government's First Time Buyers' scheme initiative found homes for just 451 people.

In the South West region as a whole, just 55 people have been helped by the scheme - despite the £100m price tag.

Speaking after the conference yesterday, Julia added that she was personally outraged at how little of the money had been spent in Cornwall.

She said: "As usual, the Government has ignored Cornwall. It has shown yet again that it doesn't care about Cornish people or Cornish problems.

"This scheme has failed local people, failed the country and failed the taxpayer."

Ms Goldsworthy said the solution to affordable housing was to give local communities the power to decide what growth is sustainable for them.

She added: "We must take measures to tackle the growth of second homes through the planning and tax system in order to make better use of the housing stock that is already available.

"Unfortunately when my colleague Dan Rogerson recently proposed this solution in Parliament, Labour and the Conservatives refused to support it."