New houses help families - Blair

Mr Blair read 'My Friend Bear' to a youngster at the centre

Tony Blair has told young families in Sussex his party wants to help parents raise their children.

The prime minister spoke to Crawley residents when he visited a community centre in the town with local Labour candidate Laura Moffatt.

He said child tax credit, an increase in child benefit and more affordable houses would help young families.

The Conservatives and Lib Dems both said Labour was planning to build too many houses in the South East.

'Desperate struggle'

The two parties' local candidates also said Mr Blair's decision to visit Crawley suggested the prime minister was worried about losing the seat, which Mrs Moffatt won for Labour in 1997.

Mr Blair visited the Broadfield Community Centre, home to the local SureStart project, which provides support for the parents of young children.

The prime minister told families the government was aiming to improve school meals, and that child tax credits and increased child benefit payments would help young families.

Nearly 100,000 new homes are planned for West Sussex

Asked about the struggles of young people to get onto the property ladder, he said: "It is a very big problem. For a young couple trying to get a foot on the housing ladder, it is a desperate struggle."

The Labour Party intends to build, if it is re-elected, hundreds of thousands of new homes in the South East over the next 20 years, about 100,000 of them planned for West Sussex.

Mr Blair said: "There is no way unless we increase the supply that you can get affordable housing for youngsters."

'Significant development'

The Conservative candidate for Crawley, Henry Smith, said: "There has to be affordable housing for key workers and young families, but the sort of levels of building we are seeing forced upon West Sussex are unsustainable and would potentially cause great environmental damage.

"Many will end up in the Crawley area and they estimate there will be another 70,000 cars on the road.

"There is no need for that level of housebuilding, we're talking about significant development."

Rupert Sheard, the Liberal Democrat candidate, said: "There is a need for affordable housing and there's concern about rising house prices across the South East.

"But there are limits and we don't like that. At the moment, John Prescott is the person who's decided things and can just do so arbitrarily.

"In somewhere like Crawley, which has been expanded already, anything like housing development and expansion has to be done very carefully."

Also standing in Crawley are Robin Burnham of the Democratic Socialist Alliance - People Before Profit and Richard Trower of the British National Party.