Mulholland Slams Government Record on Construction Industry

12.01.00am GMT Wed 10th Mar 2010

Otley MP Greg Mulholland yesterday strongly criticised the Government for its poor record on renovating empty properties.

Greg pointed to the number of houses currently laying dormant and suggested the government could do more to bring these properties back up to standard whilst helping local construction firms at the same time.

Greg commented:

"There are currently 750,000 empty homes and 200,000 construction workers chasing 300 jobs.

"Given that it takes roughly £10,000 pounds to renovate a property and £100,000 to build a new one I am at a loss as to why the Government is not doing more to bring empty properties back into use.

"In Otley we lost the firm Lotus Construction, with the loss of 80 jobs last year, a proper programme by the Government on empty properties would serve a practical purpose as well as help small firms like lotus stay afloat.