DURING the recent executive meeting, Cllr John Kaiser, executive member for finance and housing, presented the borough’s housing strategy, which was approved for consultation.
Presenting the document, he said: “Housing is something which is close to my heart and everybody has a back story, having been born in the early 50s into an extended family with four families all related living in the same council house, as they were called at the time.
“Living like this for the first three years of my life, with my parents on the waiting list of the local council, it was only when my sister was born they got a two-bedroom flat with their own garden.
“Being so young I did not really understand the impact that had on my Mum and Dad but over the years I saw my aunts and uncles also given the opportunity of having their own homes in which to bring up my cousins.
“It was not unusual at that time and many lived in poor and overcrowded conditions, but decent housing changed the lives of those families forever.
Forwarding on nearly 70 years to Wokingham, it is a different world where it is no longer common for people to live in those conditions, in fact quite the opposite.
“We have driven the number of homeless down in the borough and have no rough sleepers. Our housing waiting list is the lowest of all our neighbours with the number of people with real need being matched by the number of affordable homes we have built over the last few years. Which are currently band one 155 and band two 104.
“We have also developed our housing companies who have delivered affordable homes across the borough and are engaged in our most ambitious project to date a £100 million scheme, the delivery of new homes on Gorse Ride and to top it all they have made a profit rather than cost the council, profits which can be reinvested in services in the council.
“Good quality homes give more to residents than somewhere to live. It creates an environment to bring up children and bring stability to their lives and help to avoid poverty.
“I also wanted to talk about the impact that Covid has had over the last six months and although it is referenced in the paper it is realty difficult to ascertain the long term problems it may leave us with — but rest assure we are dealing with the short term issues as they a arise so hopefully we should help residents avoid any long term impacts.
“I will continue to work with my colleagues and officers to eradicate true homelessness in the borough and look to improve lifestyles for the most vulnerable. This includes other areas such as expanding council tax discounts.
“We have no rough sleeper on our streets, and it should be beholding on all of us to ensure that this continue. There was a something I saw the other day in which I was accused of being shamed into doing something for council tax payers let me just say it is just rubbish, as I do not need to be shamed into doing anything which help the poorest in our community.
“In fact quite the opposite, I am proud of anything I can do to help resolve poverty in the borough so get your facts right.
“The politicising of poverty does nothing to solve it in fact it detracts from the objective we all should have which is to work towards eradicating it especially in these complex and difficult times.”
