THE prospect of housing sell-off and job creation was on the agenda when the general election campaign trail arrived on Teesside.

Labour’s Shadow Communities Secretary Hilary Benn visited Coast & Country’s community training and resource centre, Westfield Farm in Dormanstown, near Redcar, to show support to the party's candidate Anna Turley.

The pair toured the centre and spoke to regular users who take advantage of its jobs club, training sessions and gardens.

During the visit, Mr Benn branded the Conservative plan to force house associations to sell-off their stock as 'unworkable'.

"We need more houses building and this scheme is not going to encourage that," he said. "We want to see more homes built to address the housing shortage and we will encourage small and medium sized housebuilders to take on smaller sites and encourage local authorities to free up these small pockets of land."

While Ms Turley turned her attention to the problems created the imposition of the so-called bedroom tax which has hit families in the area.

"The bedroom tax has devastated this area," she said. "There are people who have had to leave their family homes because they couldn't afford to pay the extra money. And what makes it worse for these people is that they are walking past their former family home and it is empty because there is no-one available to move into them."

The centre, which is also open to residents who are not Coast and Country tenants, offers people the the opportunity to learn new skills such as plastering, plumbing, tiling and joinery.

Angela Blake, the community investment officer for the housing association, said: "We are a real community facility, we offer a variety of training sessions and have digital champions who come in help everybody, not just tenants, to get access to the internet."