Cllr McKenna (Green, Redhill East) said, in response to the Government’s new housing policies published on Thursday, “The Housing Minister’s promise that the new mandatory housing targets will deliver the genuinely affordable homes needed is fatally flawed. Nearly tripling our overall targets in Reigate and Banstead will not deliver the affordable homes needed and will trash the Green Belt for no real gain other than to developer’s pockets.
McKenna continued, “That is why my motion agreed our Council called on the Housing Minister to instead set mandatory targets for socially rented homes, and for Government to provide enough money for new social housing, as used to be the case. Only by reflecting this as a priority through targets for genuinely affordable homes and providing the extra money needed, will the Government address the national crisis of 1.3 million people on Council waiting lists and 160,000 children in temporary accommodation.”
“Instead of turning our countryside into developer profit we need to provide better quality, genuinely affordable homes in the right places.”
