A COUNCIL has been accused of “selling off the family silver” after putting two houses up for public sale.

Labour Gravesham Councillor Lee Croxton has slammed the Conservative council for putting a house in Elm Road, Gravesend, and Newmans Road, Northfleet, up for sale.

Cllr Croxton, deputy leader of the Gravesham Labour party, says the houses should be kept for families on the council housing waiting list.

He said: “The Tories have declared these houses surplus to requirement. At a time when we have more than 2,000 people on the waiting list how on earth can it be possible to have any surplus houses?

“There is a serious shortage of family houses to rent, so it is utterly disgraceful for the Tories to flog off the very type of houses that families are crying out for.”

Council leader Councillor Mike Snelling defended the decision to sell the properties, saying it is “entirely necessary”.

He said: “I am amazed the Labour group should be opposed to these sales that are entirely necessary to retain our programme of up-grading our council house stock.

“We have a long standing policy of selling these few council houses that require substantial investment and which in the main are non-estate houses.

“I have considered that I have a duty to get absolute best value from the corporate estate as a whole at this difficult financial time.

“The council has provided many new modern family homes in the borough for residents seeking council housing at developments such as Jubilee Crescent and Southfields.”

Cabinet member for housing Councillor Anthony Pritchard added: “If a couple of houses are found to be substantially beyond repair at reasonable cost, then the one thing they may be of use for is to provide some funds to enable other repairs to be carried out.”

However, Cllr Croxton said: “When Labour were in control we faced a similar problem but we solved it by selling such properties to housing associations, who have access to funding not available to councils.”