General Discussion
There was a question concerning housing – sorry but I can’t remember its exact wording. Here are the notes I made of the candidates’ responses.
Labour candidate: Labour wish to build 1million homes in the next 5 years and up to 40% of them will be affordable. Building rate at the moment is the lowest since the 1920s. There is a great need for new housing.
Conservative candidate: 700,000 new houses have been built over the past 5 years. People are concerned about the number of new homes being built as much as the number of new homes not being built. Homes to rent and homes to buy are of equal importance.
Trade Union and Socialist Coalition candidate: We are feeling the consequences of the Thatcher policy of Right to Buy and now the Conservatives want to extend that RtB policy to housing association tenants. After the election the housing crisis will explode. What you don’t own, you don’t control. Big organisations buy land and bank it and they prefer to build on green field rather than brown field sites as to build on brown field sites costs them money (removing contamination for example).
Liberal Democrat candidate: Politicians don’t build houses. House building, where, when, and how much, is dependent on market forces although the government can offer encouragement to developers if the government feels so inclined. There is a housing need in Teignbridge and lots of new houses will be built but not enough of them are scheduled to be affordable.
Green Party candidate: We need homes not investments. Need to stop treating houses as cash cows and need to build homes that people can really afford. Not all people can afford ‘affordable’ homes. The Green party would prioritise the building of social housing.
UKIP candidate: We need to build a new house every 7 minutes in this country in order to keep up with demand and new building usually takes place on greenfield sites. A UKIP government would help developers to build on brownfield sites. UKIP would aim for a target of 1 million new homes in the next 5 years. The reason we need these new homes is because of all the people coming to this country.
And just to add to the problem apparently there's a shortage of bricks and brickies 'n all.
From Inside Housing 1st May 2015 page 9
“Brick shortages delay plans
Shortages of bricks and bricklayers will continue to threaten future housebuilding plans, an industry body has warned this week.
In its State of the Trade survey for the first quarter of this year, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) warned shortages could ‘undermine’ ambitious pledges made by political parties in the general election campaign.
It found that half of all small and medium sized builders (SMEs) are finding it hard to recruit bricklayers – twice as many as last year.
It said almost two thirds had to wait two months for new brick orders to come through, while a quarter were waiting up to four months and 16% between six and eight months.
Brick production ground to a halt during the recession with the industry still struggling to catch up with the increased demand for materials.
Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB said: “The brick manufacturers are working hard to reignite their kilns which were mothballed during the recession. In terms of skills, the ever- growing lack of bricklayers is causing concern. In the short-term many SME housebuilders may have to rely on migrant labour. The next government must ensure it sets the right framework in terms of apprenticeship funding and standards”.
All major parties have committed to substantial increases in housebuilding after the general election.”