Last year when it was announced that there would be funding for a small number of new council homes, I immediately entered discussions with Council officers to ensure as many of these homes as possible were built in the Framwelglate Moor Division, and yesterday the first of these was handed over to a new tenant in Bearpark. The vast majoprity of the homes are being made avaialbe for Bearpark residents after I pushed to ensure there would be a local lettings policy for these homes, helping ensure that families from Bearpark get to stay in their village.

I am now pushing for the council to do far more to get empty homes owned by private landlords back into use as we have over 4000 homes in the councty which with a little work could be providing homes for some of the 10,000+ people on housing waiting lists in the County.

There are a great many ways in which private landlords can be helped, persuaded or made legally obliged to bring homes back into use. Given the current housing crisis after 30 years of inaction, this is the quickest way to get houses available, whilst pushing for investment in new homes through the government and local council.

Clearly much more needs to be done, but this is a start and much more can be achieved.