Chancellor challenged over unfit housing

Gordon Brown’s drive to end child poverty can only be achieved
by ending the “appalling” housing conditions of the poorest
children, the director of housing charity Shelter said this
week.

Speaking after Brown’s keynote conference speech, Adam Sampson
told a fringe meeting that, although he welcomed the chancellor’s
drive to eradicate child poverty, children living in overcrowded
and unfit housing would not benefit from Brown’s proposals for
increased home ownership.

He said: “The drive for home ownership will not lift them out of
poor housing conditions. There’s no way they will become the highly
skilled citizens Gordon Brown envisages for the future.”

He told the meeting that social housing supplies had been
“choked” by a lack of investment.