Hull MP backs plan for 5,200 homes in Yorkshire and Humber

Hull North MP Diana Johnson is calling on ministers to back Labour's plan for thousands of affordable homes to boost the economy and create thousands of new jobs.

Labour wants the Government to use the £3 billion expected to be raised from the forthcoming auction of the 4G mobile phone spectrum to:

Fund the building of 100,000 new affordable homes across the country, including 5,216 in the Yorkshire and Humber region

Back people aspiring to own their own homes by introducing a two-year stamp duty holiday for first time buyers purchasing properties worth up to £250,000.

In contrast, one of the Coalition measures that caused the double dip recession was their 60% cut in social housing investment, including the axing in 2010 of the planned £160m regeneration scheme for Hull North's Orchard Park Estate.

Diana Johnson MP said: "With an average of 54 people bidding for each vacant council home in Hull, over 30 people chasing each job in Hull North and 1,000 private sector job losses announced in the past two weeks in and around Hull, we need urgent action.

"The Government should use the funds raised from the 4G auction to boost the flat-lining economy, build thousands of much-needed affordable homes and help first-time buyers. It would create thousands of new jobs and apprenticeships in the struggling construction industry and their supply chain.

"Around 5,200 new affordable homes to buy and to rent could be built in Yorkshire and Humber with Labour's plan. The National Housing Federation says that this could create up to 7,900 jobs in construction and 31,750 in the wider supply chain. It has also been backed by the Confederation of British Industry.

"We have a jobs crisis in Hull and an increasing housing crisis too. It's time that this Conservative-led government stopped being so complacent about the state of the economy and backed this plan. Without growth we will not cut the deficit."