Good news. Wigan Metro is building 14 council houses much to the delight of "Lord" Smith, at a cost of £128000 each. Some of this is funded by the government and some by the Metro. BIG DEAL!
When I was chairman of housing on Billinge UDC we had 602 council housed for a population of less than ten thousand. So 14 houses in 20 years for 380 thousand people in the Wigan Metro area is nothing.
Why, when we are supposedly richer than we were in the Fifties are we able to only build such a paltry amount when there is so much local need?. 50 years ago each little UDC built far more than 14 houses each year.
There is a large waiting list made much worse by the huge numbers of immigrants secretly housed in the area. If these uninvited people were not here we would not be so short of houses.
The policy of not building council houses was brought in by the Tories and has been continued under new Labour while both parties have allowed a massive increase in immigrant numbers and given them priority over locals whose families have been paying into the system for years.
The price of these houses is extraordinary at £128,000. Presumably the council own the land and a good house can be built a lot cheaper.
But who are these houses for. Will they be for large muslim families and will the toilets have to face Mecca (or away I'm not quite sure)
I'll bet Wiganers will not get any priority in spite of having to pay a portion of the cost through council taxes.
If they got rid of the dead wood in the Metro (that's people like you Elliot and you Lord Smith) and the uninvited immigrants they would be able to afford to house Wiganers decently. Lord Smith's allowances for 2 years would pay for one house so you can see the problem.
The combined allowances for Councillors would have paid for 8 of these overpriced house each year.
Tory and Labour governments and councils are respnsible for this shambles and it just indicates how far we as a country have fallen.
