Public meeting on affordable housing crisis announced

Stuart Hodkinson | 13.02.2007 13:15 | Free Spaces | Social Struggles

A public meeting on the affordable housing crisis in Leeds has been organised by academics and campaigners on Friday 23 February at the University, featuring MPs, council officers and tenants.

It is now widely acknowledged that despite major housing regeneration programmes underway, an affordable housing crisis is gripping Leeds. Home ownership is not an option for at least 30% of the population as the lowest house prices in Leeds cost almost 4 times the average manual wage. With 32,000 on the housing register, the demand for social housing to rent is rising yet supply is falling behind. With new building of social rented homes less than 200 per year and a further 20,000 council homes set to be lost by 2016 under the Right to Buy and the mass demolitions planned under regeneration, it will take 83 years at current rates to return social housing stock to 1995 levels. It is no surprise that in this content, homelessness is said to be rising.

lowing from a recent city-wide conference on The Future of Social Housing organised by Leeds Tenants Federation, a public meeting has been arranged on the affordability crisis for Friday evening. 23 February.

Public Meeting: Why isn't regeneration delivering affordable housing?

Outspoken Labour MP, Austin Mitchell, will join tenants, council officers and academics on Friday 23 February (6pm-9pm) at Leeds University to debate the social housing crisis in Leeds under the theme 'Why isn't regeneration delivering affordable homes?'. The public debate has been organised by Leeds Public Housing Network and is being hosted by the ESRC Autonomous Geographies Project (School of Geography, University of Leeds), currently researching the impact of housing regeneration on communities in Leeds. A top panel of speakers and stakeholders will discuss the following questions:

What is Leeds City Council's strategy for delivering affordable homes?
Why is the council demolishing council homes in a city with an affordable housing crisis?
Can PFI and other public-private partnerships regenerate housing estates and deliver affordable housing at the same time?

Speakers include:

Austin Mitchell MP, chair of the House of Commons Council Housing Group
Paul Langford, chief housing officer, Leeds City Council
Michael Hall, chair, Leeds Tenants Federation
plus tenants groups, trade unionists and academic researchers

Meeting details:

FRIDAY 23RD FEBRUARY, 6-9PM
RUPERT BECKETT LECTURE THEATRE,
MICHAEL SADLER BUILDING, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

*Free admission, nibbles and refreshments

Click here for Map and here for directions

Organised by School of Geography and Leeds Public Housing Network (leedspublichousing@gmail.com)

Download a Image: poster poster; and Image: leaflets leaflets