Housing situation a big mess

The plight of the family who have had to spend seven weeks living over a pub since they were made homeless, and Oswestry Borough Council's hiring of a homelessness officer shows what a terrible mess social housing is in for Oswestry.

It will only get worse if the council homes are taken over by a housing association. In the last 30 years we have lost more than half of our council houses through the right-to-buy laws.

During this time few housing association homes have been built compared to the number of council houses sold.

There is obviously a market for affordable houses to rent. So if housing associations are as good as Oswestry Borough Council would have us believe, why have they not filled the void left by the sale of so many council houses?

The answer is that it costs much more to build from new so they are taking the easy option by buying cut-price council houses.

Housing associations are not the answer as they are in it for profit. We must hang on to our council homes.

We have been badly let down over the sale of council houses, as most councillors just followed the council line without really knowing what is going on. We will be naming and shaming them at the next elections as we need councillors who care, not those who are only in it for their own good.

G M Knight, Oswestry