Affordable Housing?
Dear Editor,
How many innocent members of the public thought, like I did, that it was only their own County that had this awful allergy of an ‘affordable homes shortage’. I thought it was a disease that Cornwall possessed especially as my County Council were always stressing the level of damage caused by second home owners and low incomes. It had me believing that everywhere else in the country there were an abundance of houses coupled with high wages and very few residents in social housing.
Well just how gullible do you think I was – I took the bait, hook, line and sunk to the bottom of despair.
Once again our Government has fooled us all, in fact they have been extremely clever in creating this need for affordable homes which releases them from having to build social housing. It is out of the same mould as the ‘Lets get everybody to University’ scheme whereby unemployment figures will look good and the Government creates additional income through the loans facilities.
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Thereby we now not only have a rising population with students’ loans and, digging themselves deeper holes in order to fund houses for somewhere to live plus, the banks are also allowed to throw plastic cards at them to help purchase highly inflated Food, Oil, Petrol, Water, Gas, Electric, and the additional new taxes.
Now, getting off my high horse and reverting back to the ‘affordable homes’ scenario, I started from the farthest county in the South West and moved up one to Devon. Here I found “In Devon we are fortunate because we live in a beautiful part of England but this comes at a price. (incidentally the same wording as I found in Cornwall). Buyers from the wealthier parts of the country have moved into our pretty villages and towns forcing prices up”.
So I thought up one more and lets try Somerset – “The lack of affordable housing is one of Somerset’s biggest challenges to sustaining quality of life for its community”. Yes you have guessed right I took a look at Bristol – “Bristol is one area of high demand for housing. Home ownership is out of the reach of many households and demand for Social housing massively outstrips supply”. See the pattern?
Next to Gloucester – “The need for affordable housing in Gloucester show that the number of applications for housing has increased significantly in the past 5 years”. Now lets jump up a couple and we have, “As you are aware all English regions have been required to produce a housing strategy on behalf of the West Midlands Regional Assembly. Affordability is a main concern for the housing market in all rural areas of the region”.
Shooting across country to hopefully see a different story I came across “The Government office requires local plans and local development frameworks to include policies on affordable housing.
It is considered that Lincolnshire County Council housing requirement does not reflect the needs of the residents in terms of demand and supply for affordable housing”.
Well lets drive up and try just one more – Cumbria – “Affordable housing for local people is in very short supply, the biggest challenge for South Lakeland District Council is ensuring the availability of affordable housing”.
So, its not just Cornwall, is it ‘The Sustainable Communities Plans’, is it that we send so much money to Brussels that we just cannot afford to look after the indigenous people of England, or is it that our Government can’t succeed at anything?
One thing I am glad about and that is that if you print this letter the people of Cornwall will know that they are not alone.
Derek Elliott
PPC for UKIP
Camborne, Redruth, and Hayle
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