Tories in denial about their role in our housing crisis

There was a quite extraordinary story in yesterday's Wandsworth Guardian flagging up the out-of-control homelessness problem in our borough.

New figures showing homelessness in the borough now standing at over 9,000 people: that's up a stunning 187% in the space of 6 years.

The figures from the independent London Housing Federation also show over 1,300 people in hugely-expensive temporary accommodation.

These are both disgraceful figures - and I personally would consider resigning if I had been responsible for causing such a problem, as Wandsworth Conservatives have been, by flogging off thousands upon thousands of council homes for rent and aggressively refusing to build any more to replace them.

It beggars belief that the Tories are still attempting to ply the line "Sure, we've halved the number of affordable homes in the borough from over 32,000 to less than 17,000 but it's nothing to do with us guv". It's the reason why I want the law changed so that for every council home sold off, two must be built - for rent - to replace it.

And it really is untenable for Putney's Conservative MP to remain utterly disinterested, oblivious and aloof about the local housing problem. She hasn't asked a single parliamentary question about it since she was elected over two and a half years ago. Yet again, she'd rather shut up about the failings of her Tory friends on the council than side with the constituents who elected her and it's just not good enough.

Read the Guardian article here.