Oldham Council have announced they have formed a partnership with developers Muse to turn prime traditional Oldham town centre business space into a St Mary’s housing estate. Why would any administration, if they didn’t have an agenda, choose to build thousands of apartments in the msoa area that already has far more housing benefit claimants than every other area in Oldham? Why should the 80% of registrants kicked off the social housing waiting list in 2019 care that Labour Oldham are building new social housing for other people? Who are the people waiting to buy apartments in an area with the highest benefit reliance rates in Oldham, plagued with addiction and antisocial behaviour problems? Oldham has received 7,000 adult migrants in the last 39 months if you add the child migrants, asylum seekers and natural population growth to these figures the figure is around 10,000 so how will 2,000 homes built over many years have any impact at all? Is this administration aware that there are 20 wards in this borough the majority of which, unlike the town centre, contribute more than they claim yet receive zero investment in return for their money how does Labour Oldham justify this? Phil Mayall left Oldham decades ago, is it not irrelevant where he was born if he chose to leave the borough and live elsewhere?
