Helping first-time buyers while protecting the Environment

The difficulty of first time house buyers in finding a home is a real problem in many parts of the country. The problem gets most recognition in the South East, where exceptionally high house prices don’t just crucify young people looking for a home but make problems for entire communities as employers, including public services such as schools and hospitals, cannot find enough staff because people cannot afford to live there. But this is not just a problem in the South East – it also affects many parts of Cumbria where house prices are several times higher than they were in the year 2000.

House prices in villages like Gosforth and the area around Keswick are about as high as they are in many parts of the South East: it is just about impossible for a young person setting up their first home to stay in the area unless he or she wins the lottery or inherits the cash from Mum and Dad.

So I welcome proposals endorsed by Conservative leader David Cameron, to help first-time buyers and ensure that more young people are able to get onto the housing ladder while continuing to protect the environment and the green belt.

Last year, there were fewer first time buyers than at any point since 1980, and a typical first timer is unable to afford a semi-detached property in 87 per cent of towns across the country, including many parts of the Copeland area. The typical first time buyer . In the North West now needs a deposit of £6,335.

While I was planning portfolio holder on St Albans Council I fought tooth and nail to strengthen Council policy on affordable housing, and eventually succeeded in raising the proportion of affordable housing, for which the council asks on major housing development sites, from 25% to 35%. But, both nationally and in most local areas, we need to do more.

The new Conservative proposals, which will form part of the party’s policy review, include:
· Building more homes suitable for first-time buyers, while protecting the environment.
· Reviewing planning rules to encourage the creation of homes with the gardens and parking spaces that families want.
· Expanding shared ownership schemes to more than just a few public sector workers.
· Opposing the Government’s new home sellers’ packs which will increase the cost of selling a home – pushing up prices for first time buyers.
· Making it easier for council house and housing association tenants to buy their own home, with part-ownership as a step along the way.

Nothing in the proposals compromises the long-standing Conservative policy of protecting the Metropolitan Green Belt. We must also protect the National Parks.

The challenges that first-time buyers now face include paying £1,500 in stamp duty; soaring costs of living that make it harder to save for a deposit; and house prices that make it impossible to raise a sufficient mortgage for those on modest wages. Home ownership for those starting out in life, from St Albans to Whitehaven, from Keswick or Gosforth to Sandridge, is in danger of becoming the preserve of a lucky minority.

Wider home ownership is a matter of social justice. Conservatives want to bring down the barriers to getting on the housing ladder, to give families the scope to grow and to fulfil people’s aspirations of having a place of their own, while protecting our environment, our heritage, and the Green Belt. We want to build more homes and make them both eco-friendly and affordable, and give local people stronger powers to decide where they are built.

I am pleased to see that the party is calling for a review of John Prescott’s flawed planning rules, which are resulting in ugly blocks of flats without adequate parking being crammed into suburban communities. We need to allow the market to build the homes that families want – with gardens and parking spaces. And it is ludicrous that, while blaming the national housing shortage on council planning departments, the government is still trying to force down the number of houses which some authorities including Cumbria County Council wish to plan to build.

So far, so easy. Now here is the tough bit. Finding places to build the houses will require difficult decisions. They have to go somewhere, and you can bet that almost every possible site will find someone who doesn’t like the idea of building there. Sometimes those people will have a strong case sometimes they won’t. If we approve every application we will wreck the environment and have no green space left for our children to enjoy. If we refuse every unpopular application we can say goodbye to their hopes of a decent home. The challenge is to strike the right balance.

Conservatives want to see a new model of “near city” living. We want to make as much use as possible of redundant, derelict, or underutilised sites in built-up areas so that the balance between the environment and housing need is maintained. Sometimes this will be controversial. But politicians who try to catch every NIMBY vote and oppose any scheme for housing developments including under-utilised brownfield sites which are not in the countryside - they exist in all parties but in my experience the worst culprits are usually Liberal Democrats – should be asked a simple question. If you are not in favour of building homes on sites like this, does that mean that you want to build in the Green Belt or national parks, or that you are happy to price our young people out of the housing market ?

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