Ms Kelly took over most of Mr Prescott’s old job
New Communities and Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly has promised to reverse the “long-term downward trend” in the building of social housing.

Ms Kelly took over most of Mr Prescott’s old job
New Communities and Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly has promised to reverse the “long-term downward trend” in the building of social housing.

She said over the coming years 30,000 social homes would be built annually.

That prompted Conservative opposite number Caroline Spelman to accuse Ms Kelly of taking “over the controls of John Prescott’s bulldozers”.

Concern has been expressed in the wake of local elections that anger over housing allocations boosted the BNP.

Labour’s Frank Field says a failure to address a social housing crisis had created space for the far-right party.

But Ms Kelly said: “I don’t think changing allocation … will solve the problem.”

She added: “I think the policy that is needed to deal with this is to build more social and affordable homes.”

That prompted Mrs Spelman to say: “Britain’s open spaces are now under real threat from over-development. Labour Ministers claim they want to regenerate urban sites, yet sneakily they don’t class back gardens as ‘green’ space.”

More housing?

Shelter’s Adam Sampson meanwhile said: “Ruth Kelly’s personal commitment to tackle the housing shortage is welcome.”

He added that a scarcity of social housing had allowed the creation of a “blame culture” in which white residents had come to believe ethnic minorities were being given preference in the allocation of homes.

The charity says it wants more social housing to be built, rather than a change in allocation policy.

Mr Field, a former Labour minister, argued: “The policy ought to be that the old working-class values of contributing to the community should be rewarded and that those people who are then in crisis – homeless families, single-parent families and so on – should take that housing which is then vacated.”

The BNP won 11 seats in the East London borough of Barking and Dagenham in last Thursday’s local elections – a fact widely attributed to local discontent over housing policy.

‘Downward spiral’

Quizzed about this issue, Ms Kelly defended the government’s record saying it had been right to prioritise refurbishing existing housing stock.

She acknowledged that the number of social homes “had been on the long-term downward spiral” and that the demographics were changing adding to the general demand for housing.

“I don’t think changing the allocation of housing in Barking and Dagenham will solve the problems [with the BNP],” Ms Kelly added.

“I personally think we need to put a greater emphasis on increasing housing supply in the future,” she said.

“That may mean, for example, changing the planning regulations to make sure that more housing comes forward.”