"NO HOUSING SHORTAGE HERE" - SANDWELL COUNCILLOR

05-09-2007

A senior Sandwell councillor has scoffed at suggestions that there's a housing shortage in the Black Country claiming that there are hundreds of properties standing empty. The catch is that no one can afford them.

Bill Archer, a former mayor of the borough, told us: "They've been knocking factories down left, right and centre and building houses and apartments on them.

"If you drive through Wednesbury, Great Bridge and Tipton, there must be hundreds unoccupied. There's no housing shortage whatsoever. It's just that they are too expensive for anybody around here, and even renting one is impossible for most people."

To compound the misery of local people who are locked out of these upmarket properties, Archer points out that there is a shortage of council houses - Sandwell has a 12,000 strong waiting list but only 20-30 new properties become available each week.

Archer's comments are remarkable in that, as an old school Conservative, he's actually echoing remarks recently made by Frank Chance of Defend Council Housing (see here)

Chance, a traditional left-winger who is standing in the Brandwood by-election recently said of new executive housing estates: "The developments don't match the need. These are the wrong homes for the problem we are facing".