At last week’s Council Budget meeting SNP Group Leader Cllr Stuart Currie criticised the Labour-led administration for providing affordable home ownership opportunities for local residents.  

Cllr Currie said that it was a waste of council resources and not an option the SNP would support if they were in power.

North Berwick Labour Party totally disagrees with the SNP and is fully behind Cllr Jim Goodfellow’s active support for this policy. We are aware that many young people aspire to home ownership but because of the high house prices in East Lothian are unable to get on the first rung of the ladder.

North Berwick Labour Party Branch Chair Pilmar Smith said:

“Cllr Jim Goodfellow has championed this policy with our full support. There is nothing wrong with young North Berwick residents wanting to stay in the area they grew up in, it is hardly their fault that house prices are among the highest in Scotland. For Cllr Currie to callously jettison them to the market and expect them to move away to afford a home is typical of his uncaring attitude.”

Cllr Jim Goodfellow said:

“What Cllr Currie fails to grasp is that these affordable homes are in addition to our Council housing programme which has already delivered more Council houses than the SNP did in their five years in power. If Labour is returned to power in May I will continue to support this progressive policy, as it is for many young people their only hope of owning their own home in the area in which they grew up.”