Ruth Cadbury MP deems Chancellor’s Budget attempts to tackle housing crisis ‘a drop in the ocean’

Ruth Cadbury MP spoke in Parliament on how the Chancellor’s Budget falls short of doing enough to tackle the housing crisis and supports St Mungo’s at their event on homelessness.Ms. Cadbury said: “The lack of truly affordable housing in London is the biggest policy challenge for the Government now, and one they are refusing to tackle. Here in West London many people just dream of having a home, let alone owning one, and that’s why I challenged the Housing and Local Government Minister last week in Parliament to explain the Government’s position.”“The £2bn promised for the affordable housing programme is a drop in the ocean of what is needed and the small print of the Budget Red Book has revealed that the £2bn promised for affordable housing is in fact coming from a cut in spending on other housebuilding programmes particularly ‘accelerated construction’ and ‘starter homes’ - so not new money.”Ms. Cadbury attended St Mungo’s Homelessness event in Parliament on 29th November to hear from people who have experienced homelessness, as well as from the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP (Communities and Local Government Secretary) and the Rt Hon John Healey MP (Shadow Housing Secretary). The reception was also a chance for Ruth Cadbury to hear about the work St Mungo's does to end rough sleeping. Ms. Cadbury was one of more than 20 MPs from across political parties who seek to do what they can to help end rough sleeping in their constituencies.Rough sleeping has increased by 134% over the last five years across England. Recent figures revealed that 8,108 people were seen rough sleeping in London in 2016-17.Howard Sinclair, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said: “Rough sleeping is harmful and dangerous and ruins lives. Tackling homelessness is one of the major issues society faces over the coming years and we welcome the announcement of a new homelessness taskforce, announced in the Budget, and more piloting of innovative approaches such as Housing First.”