Housing increasing issue for MPs

Wednesday, 25 August 2004 12:01 AM

Housing is rapidly becoming the number one constituency concern for a number of MPs, according to pressure group Shelter.

In a survey of 98 MPs, 79 per cent ranked the UK's housing problems as their biggest constituency concern.

43 per cent of those questioned said that constituents had complained of high rents and 38 per cent said they had received complaints that high house prices made it impossible for constituents to afford their own home.

Labour MP Helen Clarke is quoted in the report as saying: "Four out of five case work discussions in my constituency are about housing and when I go door knocking, it's all about housing. Unless you get proper housing you are not going to get proper health, education, law and order or economic prosperity. It all flows from housing."

From being almost a non-issue, housing has received a high profile in the last few months owing to concerns about the booming housing market. Labour has pledged to increase its policy of subsiding housing for key public sector workers, for example through loans.

Commenting on the survey's results, the director of Shelter, Ben Jackson, said: "What this shows is what many have us have been hearing more and more - housing is becoming the issue which dominates life for more and more people. It is one of the issues which, when people look to the future, simply see things becoming worse, not better.

"For decades it has literally been the lost issue but the housing crisis has eventually begun to concentrate minds. The crisis that Shelter sees everyday is the impact being made homeless and living in bad housing has on health, education and well being. Most politicians are now waking up to the cold facts that without investment in housing, we're fighting a losing battle in eliminating poor health and education."

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