20 April 2009
Alok Sharma welcomes innovative new housing policies to get Reading moving.
Alok Sharma, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West, has welcomed plans for a radical overhaul of housing policy, thirty years on from the unveiling of the Right to Buy, which transformed council estates.
Under new Conservative proposals, tenants in social housing across Reading are to be offered the chance of genuine social mobility and equality of opportunity. Pride will be restored to local neighbourhoods, helping address anti-social behaviour and encourage social responsibility. New homes will be built for local people, with the community – not bureaucrats in Whitehall – having the final say on the homes they want.
This comes as the latest analysis reveals that the average house price in Reading, at £235,033, is 8.6 times the average income.
The detailed proposals include:
More family homes and stopping garden grabbing: Reversing the classification of gardens as brownfield land, and allowing councils to prevent over-development of neighbourhoods and stop 'garden grabbing', which has resulted in a glut of flats, the demolition of suburban family homes and concreting over of their gardens.
Incentives not top-down targets: Scrapping regional planning, and enabling councils to revise their current local plans to protect Green Belt land and prevent the unwanted imposition of so-called eco-towns. Instead, councils will keep more of the proceeds of new house building from council tax receipts, giving incentives to support new sustainable development.
Rewards for good behaviour: Offering tenants with a record of five years’ good tenant behaviour a 10 per cent equity share in their social rented property, which can be cashed in when they want to move up the housing ladder. This will give tenants a direct financial stake in the state of their neighbourhood, and reward law-abiding citizens who pay their rent on time, keep their garden tidy, and ensure their children stay out of trouble. By contrast, Labour policies reinforce and reward welfare dependency.
A ‘Right to Move’: Introducing a comprehensive national mobility scheme for good tenants who wish to move to other social sector properties, and piloting a scheme which allows good social tenants to demand that their social landlord sell their current property and use the proceeds, minus transaction costs, to buy (and thereby bring into the social rented sector) another property of their choice – anywhere in England.
Cutting waiting lists: Relaxing the rules that prevent thousands of habitable empty properties being used to house those on local authority waiting lists. 4,504 people are currently on the waiting list in Reading, an increase of 7 per cent since 1997.
Alok Sharma said: “Given the average house price in Reading is almost nine times the average income, we need to do more to help people get on and move up the housing ladder. We need social housing which promotes opportunity and social mobility, rather than reinforcing welfare dependency and we must also champion the vulnerable and help the thousands of people on housing waiting list in Reading. I welcome the plans to give an equity stake to social tenants in Reading as this will reward socially responsible citizens.”
Alok Sharma, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West, has welcomed plans for a radical overhaul of housing policy, thirty years on from the unveiling of the Right to Buy, which transformed council estates.
Under new Conservative proposals, tenants in social housing across Reading are to be offered the chance of genuine social mobility and equality of opportunity. Pride will be restored to local neighbourhoods, helping address anti-social behaviour and encourage social responsibility. New homes will be built for local people, with the community – not bureaucrats in Whitehall – having the final say on the homes they want.
This comes as the latest analysis reveals that the average house price in Reading, at £235,033, is 8.6 times the average income.
The detailed proposals include:
More family homes and stopping garden grabbing: Reversing the classification of gardens as brownfield land, and allowing councils to prevent over-development of neighbourhoods and stop 'garden grabbing', which has resulted in a glut of flats, the demolition of suburban family homes and concreting over of their gardens.
Incentives not top-down targets: Scrapping regional planning, and enabling councils to revise their current local plans to protect Green Belt land and prevent the unwanted imposition of so-called eco-towns. Instead, councils will keep more of the proceeds of new house building from council tax receipts, giving incentives to support new sustainable development.
Rewards for good behaviour: Offering tenants with a record of five years’ good tenant behaviour a 10 per cent equity share in their social rented property, which can be cashed in when they want to move up the housing ladder. This will give tenants a direct financial stake in the state of their neighbourhood, and reward law-abiding citizens who pay their rent on time, keep their garden tidy, and ensure their children stay out of trouble. By contrast, Labour policies reinforce and reward welfare dependency.
A ‘Right to Move’: Introducing a comprehensive national mobility scheme for good tenants who wish to move to other social sector properties, and piloting a scheme which allows good social tenants to demand that their social landlord sell their current property and use the proceeds, minus transaction costs, to buy (and thereby bring into the social rented sector) another property of their choice – anywhere in England.
Cutting waiting lists: Relaxing the rules that prevent thousands of habitable empty properties being used to house those on local authority waiting lists. 4,504 people are currently on the waiting list in Reading, an increase of 7 per cent since 1997.
Alok Sharma said: “Given the average house price in Reading is almost nine times the average income, we need to do more to help people get on and move up the housing ladder. We need social housing which promotes opportunity and social mobility, rather than reinforcing welfare dependency and we must also champion the vulnerable and help the thousands of people on housing waiting list in Reading. I welcome the plans to give an equity stake to social tenants in Reading as this will reward socially responsible citizens.”
