HOUSE QUOTA NOT SLASHED

AS a Minister in the government department responsible for housing policy, MP Jake Berry probably feels he has to put the best spin on the latest announcement of the government quota of houses to be built in Rossendale.

His claim that the quota has been “slashed” is nonsense and based on comparing the original number required to be built over 15 years with the new target over 10 years.

This is like comparing apples with pears.

What is important is the number of houses per year and as Rossendale Council has pointed out the government’s demand has been reduced by just 53.

Also, it is disappointing that he continues to play political games with this issue.

He refers to the original plan for 4,000 houses as the Labour plan, when he knows perfectly well that Rossendale Council only reluctantly produced this plan under threat of sanctions from the Conservative government.

And his call for no building on green-belt sites, when he must know that Rossendale can’t meet the government quota by building on brown-field sites alone, is nothing other than political grandstanding. Rebecca Jones Schofield Road, Rawtenstall