Grenfell highlights need for imaginative housing

THE Finham human chain event last Sunday was a great success and we hope readers managed to see it on Sunday’s BBC Midlands and ITV Central.

However, it is important that the public is aware of two key facts from the Office of National Statistics: that the growth of population in Coventry between 2011 and 2031 is estimated at 32 per cent, twice as fast as any other place in the West Midlands and Warwickshire while, in the same period 74,OOO non-European students are assumed to have stayed on in Coventry, even though they are on student visas which do not entitle them to stay.

Of course, the facts are nonsense and even the ONS has expressed caution about the calculations of student numbers.

Certainly our MPs and Andy Street seem highly sceptical about these figures so why are Labour councillors and officers reluctant to examine the evidence? It seems that they rely on the Inspector Rebecca Phillips to think for them even though her powers to challenge statistics are uncertain.

Our action group which represents thousands of residents both within and outsides Coventry share the Government’s vision to build as many houses as possible but we are anxious that they should be built on brown field sites and affordable to the ordinary folk of Coventry. Surely the lessons of the Grenfell Tower disaster highlight the need for imaginative social housing not only in Kensington, but in cities such as Coventry which has severe areas of deprivation.

So what is the Labour council going to do? They are going to build thousands of executive houses on green belt with only 20 to 30 per cent affordable houses.

Let’s hope we have a return to Labour values where the lives of ordinary people are respected and not abandoned to the whims of unregulated landlords. Archie Taylor, Kenilworth.