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Did you know that there are currently 4,350 applicants on Ashfield District Council’s Housing Register.

Of those, 1,584 are families with dependent children and 231 of those families have a child under the age of 1.

Many on the housing waiting list are fleeing domestic violence. Others are full-time carers with children with special needs and disabilities. Others simply need a helping hand and those are the people the Ashfield Independents who run the District Council want to help.

Councillor Tom Hollis is determined that the Council build more council homes.

As I have stated on multiple occasions, council homes transform lives - that's why your Ashfield Independent Council are building more.

As a result of building more council houses, hundreds of residents are living happily in homes with plans to help hundreds more.

When Margaret Thatcher introduced the ‘right to buy’ council homes schemes in 1980 – millions snapped up their council houses. The problem was that there was never a plan to replace the very council homes that transform lives. This is something we are putting right.

When the Ashfield Independents took over the Council in 2019, we pledged to build more and have done exactly that. This was something that the previous Labour Council failed to do having ran our Council virtually every year since 1974.

Tom is delighted that the new homes on Froghopper Lane have transformed lives.

Residents will know that our ambitious new aims to build another 200 Council homes over the next four years is bearing fruit. That’s why I am so stunned to see the Ashfield Labour Party actively campaigning against nearly every housebuilding project we are trying to start.

A senior member of the Ashfield Labour Party recently wrote to this newspaper to complain about us building more. Labour call it a ‘…campaign against broken promises.’ What a nonsense. Last year, in the local elections, your Ashfield Independent Council promised to build more council houses. Residents responded by again voting for us in huge numbers. We won 32 out of 35 councillors. Why? Precisely because we keep these promises.

The Ashfield Independents will not be put off by the Ashfield Labour Party’s short-sightedness. It is a selfish attempt to win votes. It is no wonder that people voting Labour in Ashfield is a thing of the past.

Councillor Tom Hollis, Deputy Leader of Ashfield District Council and Executive Member for Strategic Housing and Climate Change.

OPINION: Why building council homes must be a priority!