Jennie Aitken

Listener questions to council leader Jane Ashworth focused on homelessness policy, council reorganisation, debt concerns and controversial housing development plans. Ashworth supported the government’s aim to end rough sleeping but stressed that addiction-related issues must be addressed for progress locally. She described the move to a new North Staffordshire Council as an opportunity but doubted that existing council debt would be written off. She defended allowing homes to be built on Packmoor farmland, arguing brownfield sites alone cannot meet mandated housing targets. She also pledged that unspent levelling up funding would be used in time and that Tunstall would still benefit despite funding being reassigned.