Thank you to Countryside Homes, Vistry Group, Great Places & Sigma Capital for having me yesterday at the soon-to-be-completed Hartshead View housing project on the site of the former Hill Farm estate on Fitton Hill.
While praising the work being done to provide more homes for the community, members of the local Labour team in Medlock Vale with the excellent Cllr Hussain and Cllr Nasheen.
We know more houses are needed to end the housing crisis, boost living standards, and breath life into communities. This is why the Labour government is abolishing section 21 no-fault evictions, building 1.5 million new homes and reforming the planning framework, while the Labour-led council has developed a brownfield-first approach, starting with the Oldham Town Living Development Framework.
We also know houses are not enough, which is why I prioritised decent homes for local people at the election in July. Through developments like this, Labour is creating the environment for more good-quality family homes, first-time buyer homes, and retirement homes to give local people a stake in the future; while also tackling HMOs and poor quality housing.
We want every local person to have the opportunity to stay in the area they have grown up in with a safe, secure & affordable home in a high-quality neighbourhood like this.
To best explain why the need to build decent homes is so important is the experience of a local decent working family who were made homeless by a private landlord who took advantage of ‘no fault evictions’ we are outlawing, to hike up the rent on the home they lived in for over a decade. After being moved to temporary accommodation numerous times across Greater Manchester miles away from the kids primary schools, they now have a wonderful, affordable and secure home down the road from school, friends and family. That’s the difference it makes.
I raised concerns from constituents to the developers about ongoing building issues such as road cleaning from the mud from site, and we’ve dealt with a range of issues previously as casework, such as repairs needed to grass verges, the blocking of roads, anti-social behaviour, and damages which need to be addressed. We will continue to be working closely with the Council to monitor these issues and chase-up updates from residents.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 