Gateshead Council is to build some public housing! The total will be 61 homes - mainly for the elderly and disabled. With hundreds of families needing homes in Gateshead the strategy is one of two extremes. If you are over 65 you might get a new one of the 61 homes. Alternatively if you are well off earning about £80,000 a year you can afford a mortgage on one of the new "family homes" that private developers may build in 5 years after they have grassed over demolished property.
Even the Audit Commission are now beginning to understand the case for using the existing housing stock and renovating it. According to the BBC the Audit Commission thinks there has been too much emphasis on new build.
We agree. That's why we have been campaigning in favour of renovation for Saltwell & Bensham. Now the Audit Commission agree. Only the ever diminishing number of planners at Gateshead Civic Centre are continuing to say there is no solution that doesn't involve a bulldozer.
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