According to the Councils latest budget proposal plans, the local authority “…has committed to build a brand new facility in the city to be open in 2019.”
This has meant that the council is supporting 328 families in temporary accommodation, creating a rising budget pressure of £1.7 million in 2018/19, expected to rise to £5.7 million over the next couple of years.
After 17 years of failure, the Conservatives in Peterborough still have no plan to fix the housing crisis.
“Homelessness is not inevitable in a country as decent and well off as ours. This problem can be solved, but it demands a new national will to do so.” – Cllr Darren Fower
Since 2010, house building has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s, rough sleeping has risen every year, rents have risen faster than incomes, there are almost 200,000 fewer home-owners, and new, affordable house building is at a 24-year low.
We need a City Council that will make the building of new homes, including council homes, a priority!
We need a City Council that will ensure that local plans address the needs of local people, at present the Tories at the Town Hall still go against and contradict their own previously agreed policies, it’s bizarre!
I also believe we need to make ownership of land more transparent.
As detailed in the City Council‘s latest Budget Proposal Plans, the local authority are currently supporting 373 children in care, in 2011/12 this number was 340, an increase of 9.7%.
“The cost per week for a child in care ranges between £350 and £3,500, dependant on whether they are being cared for in-house by a foster carer or in a residential placement, the latter being significantly more expensive.” – PCC
The Conservatives are failing in their duty of care to children in poverty, whose numbers are increasing to Dickensian levels under Tory austerity.
With the IFS forecasting that child poverty will rise to 5 million by 2022, It’s surely time that the Tories bring forward a new strategy to tackle child poverty?