North Tyneside Labour councillor defends housing policy amid Tory calls for tougher restrictions
A Tory motion calling for a connection test for council homes in North Tyneside has been branded "unnecessary" and a sign the party is mimicking Reform UK rivals.
North Tyneside Tories moved a motion at last night's full council, calling on elected members to call for the introduction of a "UK Connection Test" to ensure British nationals and long-term residents are priorities for council housing. However, the ruling-Labour administration stated the council had already had local connection requirements in place in its lettings policy.
Leader of the North Tyneside Conservative group, coun Liam Bones said: "This is not about exclusion, this is about ensuring those who have paid into the system aren't being put to the back of the queue.
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"I urge all members to back this motion to call for the UK Connection Test to be re-instated and to show our residents we are on their side and that fairness matters in North Tyneside."
According to Deputy Mayor Carl Johnson, the four highest priority bands for social housing applications (Band 1+, Band 1, Band 2, and Band 3) all require local connections. Such connections included in the letting policy are family connections, residency of two years, and employment within the borough.
The deputy Mayor went on to say that 98% of the applications seen by the council for housing, which has increased from 20 to 50 a day over the last five years, are within the four highest priority bands. On a national scale, according to government figures published by the Government in March last year, 90% of new social housing tenants between 2022/23 were British nationals.
Coun Carl Johnson said: "What matters is yes, we will support those who need housing, but we absolutely look after our North Tynesie residents first and they must have a local connection to get housing with us."
In addition, cabinet member responsible for housing, coun John Harrison added that the growing demand for social housing was also largely attributed to the sky-rocketing price of homes and that the UK Connection Test, Sunak, was "unneccessary".
The number of council homes in North Tyneside have also dropped from a peak of 45,000 to 14,000 today.
Labour Councillor Frank Lott added: "We are not talking about reform of social housing but Reform the political party. This is about positioning the conservative party on the grubby political ground that Nigel Farage is claiming for his right-wing political party."
The Conservative's original amended was amended by the Labour majority.