£11 million plunder of district assets (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

£11 million plunder of district assets

THE lack of affordable housing in the Cotswolds has reached a crisis point.

And the district council's controlling Tories have been accused of making the problem worse by selling off the authority's remaining land assets for political gain.

The accusations were made at a meeting of the council on Tuesday, when councillors discussed housing strategy for the area.

The average house price in the Cotswolds, at more than £230,000, is making it virtually impossible for most people to buy property.

And Independent Cllr Sandra Price pointed out the local housing waiting list continues to grow at an alarming rate.

However, as planners face a losing battle to find new plots of land on which to attract developers, Cllr Price slated the Tories for selling off £11 million worth of land assets as part of their five-year budget plan.

She said: "We had a great deal of very good housing land we could have used as a negotiating tool but what's been done? It's been sold on the open market and interest from it used to take a few quid off the council tax.

"It's not just the view of some councillors, it's what people are telling us." According to figures released by Cllr Price at the meeting there are currently around 3,200 applications on the Cotswold housing waiting list.

This compares with around 1,700 eight years ago and there were some 473 new applications in the last quarter of 2004.

Many councillors blame the problem on central Government legislation, which has taken funding for housing provision away from local councils and handed it to private housing associations.

A directive from the Government for 60 percent of all new homes in Gloucestershire to be built in the Cheltenham and Gloucester area has also put pressure on the county's rural authorities.

However, Cllr Price is adamant that CDC should be doing more to help and says she is disgusted the council has sold of land, which could have been made available for housing.

Tory Nicholas Parsons, who is CDC's property and benefits portfolio holder, defended the move.

And he says that some of the sites being sold will still be used for housing.

He said: "The sale of these assets assists the council in a number of ways. It helps to keep our balances at a level which, should we choose to, we could invest in new capital projects.

"Plus, through investing our capital, we are generating income, which we would otherwise have to raise through increases in council tax and fee charges.

"To help provide more affordable housing in the future, our new local planning policy, currently waiting for the planning inspectors report and decision, is proposing that 50 percent of new developments should be affordable."

He added that between 1998 and 2005, CDC, in partnership with housing associations and builders, built or bought 972 affordably homes in the district.

The council was also the first in the country to house a key worker under the Government's Starter Homes Initiative.