More than £1m to buy back houses in Cannock Chase
More than £1 million will be ploughed into providing affordable homes in Cannock Chase under new plans to help out cash-strapped residents forced to downsize over the bedroom tax.
Council bosses are looking to buy back some of the thousands of homes that were sold off under Tory leader Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy policy.
They have won a £220,000 grant which is conditional on the council using £830,000 from its capital programme expenditure.
Housing chief Frank Allen said: "This grant is like manna from heaven. We desperately need new homes."
He said it was the first time the council has sought to buy back its former stock.
The money, from the Homes and Communities Agency, will be spent on 10 new homes over the next two years. The scheme is to go before cabinet members on Wednesday. Council officers have recommended it for approval.
The stock of council housing has been halved since the early 1980s to 5,500, with no new homes built for the past 27 years.
It is planned to buy five houses in 2013/14 and a further five in 2014/15. The homes being sought are one and two bedroomed flats, bungalows and houses.
