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Debt-free building
• ISLINGTON' S Liberal Democrat council does not usually expect plaudits from our local Labour MPs, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Emily Thornberry is backing our plans to start building council houses in Islington (Dodgy ‘affordable’ homes let developers off the hook, July 20).
We are way out in front of our neighbouring boroughs on building new homes, and especially affordable homes. Last year, more than 800 families got new affordable homes – that’s more than Camden, Haringey and Westminster councils put together.
Despite what Ms Thornberry thinks, homes for key workers are also really important for Islington if we want people like teachers, policemen, firefighters, nurses and social workers to come and work here.
But we are planning to be even more bold, and – for the first time in 25 years – the council will be building council housing in Islington, so we can get even more people off the waiting list.
One thing, though: we will not be borrowing money to build these homes like Ms Thornberry suggests. Labour had her attitude to finances when they ran Islington – always borrowing more, always passing the costs on to future generations – and it left Islington up to its eyeballs in debt and without any cash in the bank.
Thanks to the Lib Dems, that is a thing of the past. So forgive me if I don’t ask Ms. Thornberry for practical or financial advice, but it’s nice that she is with us in spirit.
CLLR JAMES KEMPTON
Lib Dem council leader
• EMILY Thornberry writes at length about the need for affordable homes in Islington. What a pity that she is as short on facts as she is long on words.
Fact 1: Under Labour, Islington Council had a target of 25 per cent affordable homes. It is the Liberal Democrats who raised that, first to 35 per cent and then to 50 per cent.
Fact 2: Last year Islington gained more than 800 new affordable homes, many as part of the Arsenal scheme – a scheme that Labour opposed.
Fact 3: Liberal Democrat MPs have this week again demanded that ministers start to tackle this crisis by allowing councils like Islington to build council houses again, but Gordon Brown has dismissed that plea on many previous occasions.
If Ms Thornberry really wanted to help the housing crisis in Islington, she could drop her partisan sniping and instead back the Liberal Democrat campaign to allow new council housing.
Overcrowded and homeless families in our borough deserve better than warm words and crocodile tears.
BRIDGET FOX
Prospective Lib Dem parliamentary candidate, Islington South and Finsbury
• EVERYONE will welcome the publication of Labour’s plans for more social housing in the Homes for the Future Green paper.
Labour has set out plans to raise the number of affordable homes built every year to 70,000. There will be an extra £3 billion in government funding.
Labour – and local people – expect Islington’s Lib Dem council to make use of all available funds to maximise the number of affordable homes built in our borough.
Labour councillors have heard that the Lib Dems plan to build a very small number of new homes using some of the proceeds from selling off local shops. They want to claim that these are Lib Dem homes.
The Lib Dems should drop this sectarian approach and announce that they will use local resources to lever into Islington as much of the new central government spending as possible.
CLLR PHIL KELLY
Labour, Finsbury Park ward
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