Published: Thursday, 19th June, 2008 1:13pm

Daughter forced apart from parents in housing Catch-22

by Adam Hewitt

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NEARLY one in 10 people in Reading are "languishing" on the growing housing list while more than 100 council homes lie empty, claims an MP.

Reading East Tory MP Rob Wilson has spoken out after one family in a Catch 22 situation turned to him in desperation - they have no bedroom for their daughter who has to sleep at her grandparents. Yet this means she cannot be included in her parents' application for a two-bedroom family home because she is classed as living with her grandparents.

Mr Wilson has accused Labour of presiding over a 25% jump in the numbers waiting for social housing in the town since 1997, at a time when 4% of homes are unoccupied - 104 of them owned by the borough council.

The figures are in a new report by Conservative Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps, and Mr Wilson said: "The Government's neglect has been exacerbated by the global credit crisis, and they have let the situation spiral out of control. Thousands of families in Reading do not have a secure home to live in."

Mr Wilson said his two constituents are at their wits' end, caught up in red tape.

The couple has been waiting for a two-bedroom home for eight years. They have been told the only way their daughter can count towards their housing application is if she swaps her bed at her grandparents' for her parents' living room floor in their one-bedroom flat.

Mr Wilson said: "These policies were introduced by the previous Labour administration in the town, the level of bureaucracy is shocking."

But borough housing leader Cllr John Ennis hit back angrily and accused Mr Wilson of getting his facts wrong.

He said: "The number of households on the waiting list in Reading is going down, having dropped from 4,759 a year ago to 4,498 today.

"Developers and Registered Social Landlords built 4,550 homes in Reading from 2001-2007, 42% of which were affordable.

"He's wrong about empty homes too. When the Tories were last in power in the early 1990s there were over 2,000 private sector properties lying empty in Reading and record evictions for non-payment of mortgages."

He said there were just 91 private homes empty in the town, less than 0.5%, and added: "In council stock, there are just 64 normal voids and 23 temporary accommodation voids - which is 1.1% of the total and is well under the Audit Commission expectation of no more than 2% void stock at any one time."

Cllr Ennis said: "Hearing a Tory pleading for social housing is like the big bad wolf asking after Little Red Riding Hood."

Shelter's chief executive Adam Sampson said: "The Conservatives are putting housing and homelessness at the top of their agenda, which Shelter is delighted about.

"But any serious response to the UK's housing crisis must include explicit plans on how the Conservatives will kick start the building of new homes, particularly affordable and social rented homes, to help thousands of struggling first time buyers and low income households across the country.

"The credit crunch could dramatically increase the demand for social housing, in addition to the many households who are already in desperate housing need."

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