Middle classes 'need homes'

LONDONERS on middle incomes should be able to rent social housing, a Tory MP will argue today.

Mark Field will tell the Commons that a growing number of areas in the capital are now inhabited only by people who are extremely affluent or very poor.

The MP for Westminster and the Cities of London was due to say in a debate on social housing: "People on middle to low incomes are increasingly being pushed out of the area. With the neediest households receiving priority for housing, my constituency is now exclusively home to the super rich and very poor. This is not a healthy state of affairs."

He urged ministers to relax rent policy for housing associations to allow them to offer homes to better off people, on as much as £40,000, as well as graduates.

Town hall leaders have warned that two million families could be on the waiting list for social housing across the country within two years because they will be unable to buy or rent a private property.

Mr Field says the Government's bid to build three million new homes by 2020 is doomed.