Coun George Duggins said he will explore possibility in bid to help people find affordable homes
Coventry's council leader wants the city to build council houses in a bid to help people who struggle to get onto the property ladder find homes.
But Coun George Duggins said he would only pursue the ambition if it was a sustainable approach and plans to order officers at the authority to investigate the possibilities.
The Labour leader said he hoped the council could help to tackle a shortage of affordable housing by taking inspiration from the 1960s when council house building was commonplace across the country.
He said: “There are too many youngsters, people in their 30s, who rely on the bank of mum and dad to get them on the housing ladder or they are living in the home of mum and dad.
“I think it’s a generation of people who are being let down because of the supply of housing.
“One of the things I want to look at is whether we as a council can once again start to build council housing.
“I don’t know the position on that, I want to test that out in respect to its sustainability.”
The move would see Coventry follow in the footsteps of authorities such as Croydon and Wolverhampton who have already committed to creating new council homes.
Coun Duggins said: “I know other councils are but I want to see whether its a possibility for us.
“I do believe in respect to the housing market there was a time when there was not a shortage of accommodation. This shortage of accommodation has pushed up rents astronomically for people.
“A lot of people are spending huge amounts of money on housing. If you spend ten per cent of your income on energy you are in fuel poverty, going back years ago if you spent 40 per cent of your income on housing you were also likely to be in quite a difficult position.
“I don’t know what those figures are now, but what I do know is that we are not where we were in the 1970s when housebuilding was effectively stopped by councils. The supply simply isn’t there and it needs to be.”
Asked about the impact of increasing numbers of students coming to the city, Coun Duggins said he was supportive of student accommodation being developed in the city as it helped free up family homes.
He said: “We have two universities which bring huge advantages to this city in terms of employment, in terms of prestige.
“Frankly, if you have two universities such as that, it’s inevitable that their students are going to look to live somewhere.
“We are a welcoming city and it needs to be seen in the context of the positivity of the two universities. They are massively positive, they are massively vehicles for good for the local economy.
“There needs to be a balanced approach to student accommodation.”
After having sold the last 17,000 council houses to Whitefriars for a nominal £1!
