OUTRAGED Council bosses have moved to ‘set the record straight’ following criticism on the affordable housing strategy.
Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) bosses have blasted ‘inaccurate and misleading’ criticism from Shelter on its affordable housing requirements.
In a statement to the media the national housing and homelessness charity claims that the authority has built ‘an average of only 187 homes in the last year’.
But the statistic refers to the record of three former district councils that merged to form the new authority.
In its first year, more than 400 new affordable homes have been built in the borough - beating the set target by 25 per cent.
CWaC say they have ambitions to enable a further 860 affordable homes to be built across the borough in the next two years.
Council leader Mike Jones said: “Affordable housing is a vital element of our policy and we are rightly proud to be one of the few authorities in the region to have easily beaten its own target.
“We are well aware of the need to increase building rates and, even in this depressed financial climate, 2,163 affordable homes are in the pipeline.”
Cllr Jones added: “If further evidence of our commitment was needed, it can be found in the fact that this authority has just put in £1.6 million to replace the Government’s reduced allocation for housing investment in 2010/11.”
Recently the authority has been visited by both housing minister, John Healey and Richard McCarthy, director general, housing and planning at the department for communities and local government.
Mr McCarthy told the council that he was impressed with the progress that the authority had made to date and with the ambition that the leader and his colleagues were showing for the area. Cllr Jones said: “However, it is totally inaccurate to say that we have built only 187 homes during the last year.
“I don’t know how Shelter has apparently arrived at these figures using statistics from the three former authorities.
“We will certainly be making them aware of the truth.”
Cheshire West and Chester Council has also recently introduced its own strategies to deal with homelessness and empty houses across the borough.
“Both of these strategies will of course have an effect on the number of people we are able to house,” he added.
During his visit to Cheshire West and Chester the Minister saw the waterfront at Ellesmere Port, where the authority has ambitious plans for many thousands of new homes, and also visited building work in progress on local sites delivering new affordable homes.