Reacting to the housing crisis in Islington, the Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said yesterday in the Commons that she expects the council "to start responding" to the Government's new rules for more affordable home building - despite the ruling Lib Dem councillors voting earlier in the week to ignore them.
The battle in recent months over affordable housing in Islington has seen Labour politicians insisting the Lib Dem Council commit to a borough-wide target for affordable housing and stop letting developers of small sites get away without building any affordable homes.
In the face of the council's constant refusal to do so, Emily Thornberry, Jeremy Corbyn, and local councillors met the Minister in October to beg the Government to intervene and help tackle the housing crisis - and last week the Government published tough new planning rules, requiring Islington to set a borough-wide target and encouraging affordable housing on small sites.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday, the Housing Minister agreed that Islington Council must alter its local policy on affordable housing to fall in line with the Government. She went on to speak about the need to build affordable homes on small sites, saying
"We have set out the need for councils to consider asking for affordable homes on smaller sites, not simply on large sites, where that is viable and housing is needed. We should try to provide more affordable housing through the planning system. Some research suggests that two thirds of homes are currently built without any contribution to affordable housing"
In a full council meeting on Tuesday, Liberal Democrat councillors had voted to ignore the Government's new rules on affordable housing - refusing to set a target for affordable home building. Two days later, MP Emily Thornberry asked the Housing Minister in the House of Commons to join her in condemning their action.
Emily said:
"I've been making the case to the Housing Minister that the Government needs to step in and stop Islington Council slithering out of their responsibility to build more affordable homes. The Government has listened and they have responded - now the Council has no choice but to fall in line."
