TUC calls for housebuilding boost

Up to 260,000 construction jobs could be created if the Government agreed to a major housebuilding programme to tackle homelessness, the TUC said last night.

'Homeless people and building workers without jobs are paying for the Government's inaction on housing,' George Brumwell, chairman of the TUC's construction industries committee, said.

'It is economic lunacy for 400,000 building workers to be jobless at the same time as 140,000 families remain homeless and another 60,000 are living in temporary accommodation.'