Minister's snubs to the homeless

Government minister Yvette Cooper was yesterday accused of snubbing the thousands of people around Bognor Regis waiting up to ten years for a home.

Ms Cooper took ten weeks merely to tell Arun District Council leader Cllr Gill Brown she was too busy to meet her to discuss the crisis.

She said she also did not have the time to even pick up the telephone to talk about the problem.

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She instead deflected Cllr Mrs Brown with the suggestion that she contact a homelessness officer at the Government Office of the South East.

Furious Cllr Mrs Brown said: 'The situation in the district has got nothing to do with homelessness. It's got everything to do with a lack of funding for social housing, which is what I wanted to talk to Ms Cooper about.

'We are facing a really serious situation with a lack of affordable housing in this district.

'If Ms Cooper won't talk to me, I have contacted the three MPs who cover the district (Nick Gibb, Nick Herbert and Peter Bottomley) on Tuesday to try to make contact with her to arrange a meeting.'

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The latest figures from Arun's housing department show that the numbers waiting for a property around Bognor have soared in the past year.

At the end of March, the total number on the list had climbed to 2,262 from 1,472.

The number of families, who can wait up to ten years, had gone up by an alarming 50 per cent from 832 to 1,252. The adult numbers rose from 516 to 775, or 30 per cent, while the queue of senior citizens worringly almost doubled to 235 from 124.

In all categories, the queues around Bognor are significantly worse than those in the Littlehampton area.

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Housing issues are among the most common inquiries tackled by advisors at Bognor Regis Citizens' Advice Bureau.

While distancing herself from the political row, CAB supervisor Diana Borrow said its advisors frequently saw clients whose lives were blighted by the lack of a house.

'Long waiting periods mean even those with health problems and with children are waiting years for secure housing.

'Clients find themselves homeless as private accommodation offers no security.

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'This causes secondary problems such as stresses on employment and family relationships,' she explained.

'Private tenants have to pay high rents and lack security as they are often afraid to ask for repairs to be done as they could be given two months' notice.

'The high rents mean clients often find it difficult to earn enough to pay the rent and be better off than they were on benefits.

'Those on benefits often find the only housing available to them is the poorest quality as most landlords will not take tenants who are claiming housing benefit.'

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The scale of the housing crisis ensured Cllr Mrs Brown received unanimous backing in February from the then members of Arun District Council to approach Ms Cooper to meet the council's senior members from its four political groupings.

The councillors were concerned that Arun had received just 3.9m, to build 88 affordable dwellings, in the latest round of government funding to cover 2006-08.

This miserly handout failed to reflect the presence in the district of four of the most deprived wards in south east England.

Everywhere else in West Sussex received more cash '“ from Horsham's 5.2m to the 10.5m for Crawley.

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Cllr Mrs Brown said: 'If Tony Blair and his government expect us to provide affordable housing, then we must have central government support to achieve it.

'The planning system alone can't solve the problem of providing appropriate housing so that people can afford to live and work here and that their children will also be able to live and work here too when they grow up. We need to know how we can fund the houses that are needed and it won't be possible without substantial public investment. We need the government to explain why it isn't helping to do this.'

Arun insists on major housing scheme developers providing one in three of their properties for social housing. But even a scheme the size of site six in Felpham and North Bersted '“ the largest development around Bognor for at least 30 years '“ will only provide 450 such homes to make just a small dent in the queue.

The social housing crisis contrasts with the experiences of homeowners who are reaping the rewards of soaring prices.