Letter to the editor: Lewisham Green Party cautiously welcomes Lewisham Council’s decision on October 22 to proceed with temporary housing on the currently unused former Ladywell leisure centre site.

A similar approach has been used successfully in Green Party-led Brighton and Hove.

Although far from ideal, it is a practical short-term solution to an untenable long-term problem.

The proposal highlights the need for more council housing in Lewisham. We need homes not only for the homeless, but also for full-time carers, people who are currently out of work and low-paid workers who can not afford private sector rents.

Provision of genuinely affordable housing, council housing and introducing rent caps, along with a the living wage, are the ways to reduce the housing benefit bill, not by arbitrarily cutting benefits.

This must be taken in to account with future developments and council housing given the priority. The development, which replaces the temporary homes on the Ladywell leisure centre site, needs to comprise council and genuinely affordable housing.

We already have several new developments of unaffordable homes being bought as investments, with more being constructed, while thousands of households remain on the council’s waiting list, hundreds in urgent need.

We appreciate that councils’ ability to borrow for council housing is limited by the central Government borrowing cap. We call on Lewisham Council to follow Enfield’s lead in setting up its own property company so it can borrow to build new council housing as an investment in Lewisham’s people and our future.

During the tendering process Lewisham Council should prioritise local contractors and workers, which would reduce transportation and help our local economy.

Homes on the temporary development should be energy efficient and have access to renewable energy provision on the site, which would cut fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions while also providing more employment and training for local people.

DAVE PLUMMER, Lewisham Green Party