Government’s commitment confirmed on council house building

Local authorities will receive £100 million of un-ringfenced funding to use to combat the economic downturn in their local area. Speaking at yesterday’s New Local Government Network annual conference, Gordon Brown said that if councils can ‘convince us that they can deliver quickly and cost-effectively more of the housing that Britain needs… then we will be prepared to give them our full backing’. However, he warned that ‘investment in social housing must be aligned with reform’ indicating that he wanted issues, such as the high levels of unemployment among council housed residents, addressed. The campaigning group Defend Council Housing welcomed the announcement.