New homes doubled in seven years

THE number of new homes being built in Tyne and Wear has almost doubled since 2010.

And the number of new council houses is ten times higher than under the last Labour government.

However, Shadow Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has admitted that the UK faces a “housing crisis”, and is reportedly pushing Chancellor Philip Hammond to let his department borrow £50bn to fund a massive building programme.

There were 110 new council homes completed across the Tyne and Wear area in the 2016-17 financial year, official figures show.

This covers Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland.

Another 2,230 privately-built homes and 400 housing association properties were completed in Tyne and Wear, a total of 2,740 new homes.

In 2009-10, the last year of the Labour government, the number of council houses completed in the same area was 10. There were 160 housing association properties completed and 1,250 homes built by private enterprises, making a total of 1,430 completions in Tyne and Wear in 2009-10.

The number of new homes built in County Durham has increased from 1,120 completed in 2009-10 to 1,150 completed in 2016-17, while the number in Northumberland rose from 450 to 1,200.

However, the Government admits that there is a shortage of homes Mr Javid is said to have asked the Chancellor to authorise borrowing of £50bn for a massive home-building programme.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday, he said: “What I want to do is make sure we’re using everything I have available to deal with the housing crisis.

“Where that means, for example, we can sensibly borrow more to invest in the infrastructure that leads to more housing, take advantage of some of the record low interest rates that we have, I think we should absolutely be considering that.”

The Sun newspaper reports that sources revealed Mr Javid has asked for £50bn for homebuilding in next month’s Budget.

Mr Javid also suggested the Government would not relax protections for the green belt.

“I don’t believe that we need to focus on the green belt here, there is lots of brownfield land, and brownfield first has been a policy of ours for a while,” he said.