Homes scheme in chaos as region backs out

Ross Lydall @RossLydall|Local Government Correspondent|Evening Standard

13 April 2012

Government plans to build an extra half million homes in the South-East have been thrown into chaos.

The East of England regional assembly has withdrawn its support for a scheme for 478,000 new houses - only days after putting the plans out to public consultation. It says it can no longer offer its backing after the Government failed to provide extra money for new transport links. The regional assembly - a panel representing 54 local authorities - decided last week to put the draft housing blueprint out to formal consultation.

It would set housebuilding targets up to 2021 for the region. A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime

Minister said ?100 million for transport had been allocated by the Chancellor in the summer, while a ?200 million community infrastructure fund had also been established.

A Cabinet row has broken out over plans to extend the right-to-buy to a million housingassociation tenants. Labour's election co-ordinator Alan Milburn wants to make the right to "home ownership" a central plank of the party's election campaign. But John Prescott believes Labour should be concentrating on providing more social housing.

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