Bridget Prentice MP supports new housing plan to help families and first time buyers.

Bridget Prentice MP has welcomed the Government’s ambitious national plan to build more affordable, better designed and environmentally friendly homes to help first time buyers and families in Lewisham East.

 A new £8 billion package for affordable homes was announced by housing minister Yvette Cooper in a new Green Paper, presented to Parliament on 23 July. The Green Paper also outlined a commitment to build at least 70,000 affordable houses a year by 2010 -11. This includes 45,000 new social homes a year - more than doubling the amount built each year compared to 2004, and a goal of 50,000 social homes a year in the next spending review. 

• Bridget Prentice MP said: “We haven’t been building enough homes across the country for a generation. First time buyers and families round here are being hit hard and it will only get worse if we don’t act now. That’s why I’m backing the Government’s measures to build more affordable homes. We all need to work together to deliver the homes we need.” 

The Green Paper also confirmed its target that from 2016 all new homes should be zero carbon, with milestones that by 2010 new homes should emit 25% less carbon; and by 2013, 44% less carbon. And Councils were also invited to bid to host at least five new zero carbon eco-towns. 

• Bridget Prentice MP continued:  “Now more than ever, we know the challenges of climate change. That’s why we need to build homes in a more environmentally friendly way. So it’s really important that housebuilders and developers in Lewisham East fully commit to the target of zero carbon homes by 2016.” 

Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing said: “This is a national issue, but it’s a local issue too. We want to give local councils new opportunities to build more affordable homes in every community. But they must be sustainable and well designed, and built to the highest environmental standards.”