Minister accepts estate invitation

HOUSING Minister Grant Shapps is to visit Hull’s Orchard Park estate to discuss its regeneration prospects, months after the coalition Government rejected plans for a £160m housing scheme in the area.

Mr Shapps accepted an invitation to visit the estate by Hull North MP Diana Johnson, who said she would continue pressing for investment while accepting funding opportunities would be “limited” in the current financial climate.

Speaking after a preliminary meeting with Mr Shapps, Ms Johnson said: “I took the opportunity to express the frustration of many Orchard Park people at being let down, yet again, by the withdrawal of the £160m of housing investment that would have led to an improvement in the quality and quantity of homes to rent and buy in the area.

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“I appreciate that a Minister’s diary is very busy and I am therefore pleased that the Housing Minister has agreed to set the wheels in motion for a visit to Orchard Park to see the challenges for himself.

“Although I suspect that the opportunities to get investment into Hull’s housing will be very limited in the next few years, this makes it all the more important to be more rigorous than the previous Liberal Democrat council was in making the best of any opportunities to attract investment that can benefit local people.

“To this end, and in advance of the Minister’s visit, I will work with the new Labour council on making a full assessment of Hull’s need for rented social housing, the number of empty homes and the realistic options for increasing opportunities for affordable home ownership locally.”

The previous Labour Government had approved a £160m project to build 500 new council houses and up to 168 private homes in 2009, but the Homes and Communities Agency axed the funding last November, despite the city council having spent £650,000 working with residents to agree a design.