EVERY piece of land available is being used to build more homes in Southend, according to the council leader.

Responding to criticism about a lack of new housing, Tory John Lamb, the leader of Southend Council, claimed they are doing all they can when challenged at a meeting.

Opposition Labour councillors are calling for more of the homes to be affordable or social housing.

Mr Lamb said: “We don’t disagree generally about building more homes, we are a very urbanised area but we are trying to grab every piece of land we can to put homes on.”

No specific plans were put in place following a call from the Labour party to “explore all avenues” for building social housing on former NHS land at Fossetts Farm.

However members agreed to work with site owner Homes England to “achieve the number, tenure, affordability and overall quality of homes to be built”.

The 14-acre site at Fossetts Farm, where a new NHS diagnostic and treatment centre had been planned, was sold in 2018 by the NHS to Land England for £7million.

It is estimated up to 400 new homes could be built on that land, which campaigners say could mean it’s true market value could be in excess of £40million.

Labour Councillor Ian Gilbert, said: “To us it is important that the houses we build are genuinely affordable and the definition of affordable is so loose it can mean virtually anything, which is why we focus on social housing for rent.

“The Conservatives seem to have a problem with the term social housing. From our point of view if it is just affordable using the government definition then that is not good enough. They won’t be affordable to many people in Southend, particularly those on the waiting list.”

He added that Labour also wants to see social housing which is available to key workers, such as NHS staff in order to support the council’s goals of attracting more healthcare workers.

“In the council’s budget they say they plan to recruit people to work in adult and children’s social care, which is needed, but recruiting is going to be very difficult given the conditions and staff shortages in the NHS,” he continued.

“It is becoming harder to recruit for these positions and actually providing housing which is affordable for those professions is something we need to look at.”