RESUMPTION OF THE BUILDING OF COUNCIL HOUSES

That this House welcomes the announcement by Westminster City Council that it plans to start building council houses, after a break of almost 30 years, to help ease chronic overcrowding and homelessness; notes that in the last 10 years, on average, each year fewer than 500 council dwellings were built in England and Wales, in contrast to the peak years during the third quarter of the 20th century when annually around 200,000 local authority homes were constructed; believes that only a resumption of building, on a meaningful scale, of new council dwellings can tackle the increasing levels of overcrowding and homelessness across the country; and calls on the Government to provide the encouragement and resources to enable every local authority to follow the lead shown by Westminster City Council.