The government abandons two thousand on Rugby’s housing waiting list

In his autumn statement the Chancellor gave some hope to people who could afford to buy a quarter of a million pound "starter" home but blighted the prospects of those hoping to rent a house from their local council or a housing association.

Cllr Chris White, a Liberal Democrat councillor from St Albans said "Over 60,000 people are currently living in temporary accommodation and over a million more are on council waiting lists. These people have been abandoned by the Government and will continue to face a bleak future. The Chancellor is going out of his way to destroy any hope of them getting a permanent roof over their heads. Not everyone wants to - or can afford to - buy one of Mr Osborne's shining new "starter" homes - at £250,000 outside London or £450,000 within the capital".

"Councils need to be able to ensure genuine affordable homes continue to be built for rent and sale and Government should give them the powers to get on with it" Cllr White added.

Surprisingly [or perhaps not so surprisingly] the Council's waiting list is not one of the performance indicators that Rugby Borough Council's conservative cabinet uses to see how well it runs our town but the last time there was a Freedom of Information request the waiting list count was around 850 families.

(The Council operates a combined waiting list for its own properties and for housing associations. For planning purposes the Council instructs developers to assume 2.35 people per household so on that basis 850 families will contain two thousand people).