£4m housing lift (From Stroud News and Journal)

£4m housing lift

AN estimated £4 million is to be made available for affordable housing by 2006 after council finance wizards cleared £3 million of debt in three years.

The massive funding boost will enable Stroud District Council (SDC) to provide incentive for developers in an effort to reduce Stroud's shortfall of cheaper homes.

And Conservative cabinet members were in triumphant mood as they announced the cash injection, which will come from sale of council houses under the right to buy programme, at Ebley Mill on Friday.

"I am delighted with this," said council leader Chas Fellows (Cons, Chalford). "We have always been doing the very best we can to address the affordable housing needs in the district and now we can do a lot more."

The council will save the cash after annual spending cuts of 2-2.5 per cent over the last three years helped it overcome £3 million of debt.

Cabinet member for finance and corporate services Stephen Glanfield (Cons, Amb and W'chester), explained that the cash boost could even be higher than £4 million and said cash may be spent before 2006 if a suitable project turned up.

"Stroud District Council is in the strongest financial position of any in Gloucestershire," said Cllr Glanfield. "When you add this to everything else we are doing in terms of regeneration for the Stroud district I think you see a district which is very much on the up."

Labour leader Hilary Fowles welcomed the move but warned there was no "quick fix" solution to Stroud's increasingly desperate need for affordable housing.

"I find I am being approached by more and more people who are in serious housing need and it is getting harder and harder to help them," she told the SNJ. "The Tories still need to do a lot more and push this up the agenda because it is causing problems for an awful lot of people."

Neil Carmichael, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Stroud, welcomed the news. "The need for more affordable housing in the district is obvious and widely recognised. Now, through sensible financial management Stroud District Council is able to do something about it."