Housing, the lack of it...

When I was selected by my party nearly a year ago I did so because I offered youth, localism and, hopefully, a different perspective.

These facets that made my candidature back in Feb '07 appealing may lead to conclusions that jar with conventional wisdom in our villages. One of these is housing. The Government want Rugby Borough to provide 24,000 additional homes over the coming years. This is because of a changing residential usage and spiralling housing prices. We need to engage in these problems and decide where these additional properties should go.

The changing pressures on housing are basically due to two factors. An increase in population because people are thankfully living longer and that we are experiencing increased immigration is one reason. A second reason is that housing usage is changing, more residences only contain 1 person and so more houses are needed.

Housing supply is a national issue that is hurting the young and aspirational more than anyone else. What I notice around our villages is that rural living has become the preserve of the affluent and more mature members of society. It is all well and good paying lip service to this, the real test of understanding the problem is to do something about it.

This Government has been a failure on many counts, but their recent promise to build more houses is addressing an issue head on. Tinkering with Inheritance Tax and Stamp Duty won't change prices a jot. Supply is the issue, but in accepting that we can't adopt the self-preservational step of refusing to accept our fair share of the burden.

Village life and community needs young couples and young families. The proportion of properties filled by these people is falling, it's happening all over the country. Unfortunately it has been an insidious problem and trying to put it right in one fell swoop looks clumsy.

By increasing the urban housing and keeping village housing supply neutral the problem will be exacerbated.

In the coming weeks and months the Borough Council will be consulting with Parish Councils and residents themselves. There are three Options that are on the table. I will make the point that we need to make long term decisions and not needlessly adopt selfish positions that will damage our villages in the long time.

Please join me in reading the Consultation paper, setting it in a national context and avoiding possible scare stories that could be flying about the place. As I said at the start, this might not be expedient for me but I have been elected to offer unconventional points of views where necessary.