Maidstone Weald Labour Party

Below is the original letter that was sent to the Kent messenger and published in it's edited form. It furthers the campaign from the West branch on social housing.

"Wallace and Gromit might have said that it's the 'Wrong type of Houses' but that is only partly the problem. The housing crisis, highlighted by your correspondants complaining of mushrooming housing, really started when Thatcher and successive governments since, sold the Council Housing and then did nothing to replace it. The number of Social Housing starts has fallen to an abysmal low and the housing waiting lists rise inexorably. Many cannot afford to buy and have to continue to live with their parents, or parents in law, until their mid-thirties or more, a fate worse than death it seems to me. The long and the short of it is that we desperately need more social hlusing to meet the demand and we cannot turn our backs on our children as your correspondants, one I note a former Labour Councillor, seem to suggest. Gridlock will occur even without the additional housing because the numbers of people using the roads still rises whether they are living with their parents or living alone and if we have to live with the fact that we cannot water our lawns I don't feel that this is too much to bear in the short term. The authorities need to get their act together and build the social housing, roads and water reserves as a matter of urgency. Those who seem to think that Maidstone must stay as it is without change, regrettably are living in cloud cuckoo land."