‘Build, build, cut’? Or did Johnson simply announce continuation of Budget promise?
Caught out again: but if anyone demands clarity from Boris Johnson, isn’t this the best response we can hope to get?
Boris Johnson seems to have painted himself into a corner with his claim to be putting more money into building affordable homes.
Read this:
Boris Johnson’s claim to “build, build, build” his way out of the coronavirus pandemic was thrown into confusion amid claims that he appeared to have cut funding for affordable housing.
As he delivered a speech in Dudley, No.10’s website suggested that £12bn would be spent on housing over the next eight years – even though the Ministry of Housing said after the Budget in March that the same amount would be spent over five years.
The PM faced fresh claims that the Tory party was doing favours for its “housing developer mates” after he unveiled sweeping planning reforms to allow high street shops to be turned into housing.
A government spokesman insisted there had been no cut to funding and that the eight year timeframe was a reference to the delivery of the new homes, rather than the five-year allocation of cash for them.
“This is in line with what was announced at Budget – there has been no cut in funding or delay in delivery.”
If it’s in line with what was announced in the March Budget, then Johnson isn’t offering any extra money.
And in fact, it seems he’ll be giving cash to his “housing developer mates” to do cheap conversions of shops into housing.
So it seems clear that Johnson’s speech was, if not riddled with lies as such, at the very least misleading.
It’s what we’ve come to expect from the Tories – and from Boris Johnson in particular.
You can’t ever take him at his word.
Source: Johnson ‘Build, Build, Build’ Pledge Under Fire Amid ‘Cuts’ Confusion | HuffPost UK
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