The Conservative-led Wycombe District Council must stick by their promises to fight homelessness and find homes for young people, Labour have said.

New WDC leader for Labour, councillor Rafiq Raja, said it was good to see the Tories talk about how they plan to help disadvantaged residents, but added more needs to be done and money should be spent of social housing.

He said: “It’s good to see the Tories on WDC have at last recognised the plight of the homeless and young people in Wycombe struggling to find somewhere decent to live at a price they can afford.

“It would of course have been even better if the Tories had recognised the problem years ago and done something about it.

“WDC has received about £20 million from the sale of Wycombe’s Council homes. It would have been good if they had spent even some of the proceeds to ease social housing.

“That is what the Tories promised to do four years ago. As it is, not one penny of the proceeds has been spent on affordable or social housing.

“WDC is due to receive another tranche of receipts from the sale shortly – a substantial sum of money. All of this should be spent on affordable and social housing in Wycombe. “

During a full council meeting last month new WDC leader, Cllr Katrina Wood, stated housing, youth and environment are three of her top priorities.

But, their opposition have said the WDC track record in building more affordable and social housing does not stand up to scrutiny and is “deplorable”.

Cllr Raja added: “I was also surprised at the time Tory Councillors spent during the Council meeting congratulating themselves on how well they had performed in the past and how well things would go in the future, and what splendid people they all were - this at a time when in some of our wards a third of our children live in poverty and thousands are using foodbanks.”

“Tory councillors remain totally divorced from the realities of life of many of the people living in Wycombe.

“I look forward to seeing the Tories’ plans for meeting all of the promises they made yesterday. It is easy to make promises but the hard part is to deliver on your promises and the people of Wycombe will be looking for results and not platitudes”.