The Government’s housing plans fail to make the role of local authorities clear – when they could be building new homes to help meet national housing needs, according to Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH)

ARCH – which represents councils whose tenants have voted for their local authority to be their landlord – welcomed the recent ‘£1bn housing rescue package’ from Government. But it pointed out that the measures outlined place great emphasis on home ownership and the role of housing associations without showing how the important potential that councils have to build new homes can be realised.

ARCH’s secretary, John Bibby, who is director of housing and community services at Lincoln City Council, said: ‘We broadly welcome these measures and await further details as to what they mean in practice for councils. But proposals outlined so far are not necessarily going to solve national housing problems.

He added: ‘The funding that has been announced is not new money, but merely bringing forward existing budgets to an earlier date. And it has not been made clear how new council building could take place within a housing finance system that is widely acknowledged as unfair and unsustainable. Any proposals for council housing must be looked at within the context of the review of housing finance that is currently under way.’