14 Jan 2010 - First new council houses in 30 years
The first significant council house-building programme in Bristol for more than 30 years has been given the green light after Liberal Democrats on Bristol Council won over 5 million of funding to build new homes. A total of 46 new council houses will be up and ready for the first tenants by March 2011 and another 30 houses the year after, and all of the homes will be built to high environmental standards.
Councillor Mark Wright is the Housing chief on Bristol Council: "I am very pleased to hear we have won this support for our plan for new council houses. These new council houses will, I hope, be the first of many. I grew up in council housing in south Bristol. I am determined to see a reinvestment in new council housing provision in our city."
Cllr Wright is also leading a new drive to reduce the number of empty homes in Bristol. It is estimated that there are over 6,000 empty at any one time, of which 2,000 have been empty for over 6 months. He commented, "It's absolutely criminal that there should be so many empty homes lying around the city when there are over 12,000 families on the housing waiting lists. I intend to make sure that we drive down the number of empty homes wherever possible."