Councillor Stuart Hirst Chairman of the Ribble Valley Housing and Health Committee welcomed a major Conservative policy paper pledging a radical overhaul of housing policy, thirty years on from the 1979 Conservative manifesto which transformed the nation with the Right to Buy.

''This is all part of the drive by a future conservative government to end the top down, target driven, Whitehall direction of housing by the Labour government and give local communities the right to direct the building of local housing to meet local need and decide where they should be built, returning power to communities. It will help those starting off on the housing ladder to obtain their first residence and give many others a stake in their own home''

''The proposal for community-led local housing trusts will enable communities in towns and villages in the Ribble Valley constituency such as Longridge , Clitheroe , Bamber Bridge , Farrington and Lostock Hall to develop their own housing trusts with powers to direct and build affordable homes, which meet the needs for their area, which will remain in the control of the trust in perpetuity .

''Local authorities like Ribble Valley and South Ribble Borough Councils will be given the power to scrap regional imposed planning targets and amend their current local plans to protect the green belt. ''

''In this report England’s four million social tenants are offered the chance of genuine social mobility and equality of opportunity. Pride will be restored to rundown housing estates, helping address anti-social behaviour and encourage social responsibility. ''

The detailed proposals include:

Extending opportunity for social tenants, not suppressing social mobility

• Rewards for good behaviour: Offering tenants with a record of five years’ good tenant behaviour a 10% 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.

• Supporting supporting-low cost housing sector: Including strengthening shared ownership schemes which allow those on intermediate incomes to part-own their home; allowing more flexible equity stakes, greater private sector offering of shared ownership schemes, and ensuring that shared ownership buyers are not routinely treated as sub-prime borrowers by mortgage lenders.

• Cutting waiting lists: Relaxing the rules that prevent thousands of habitable empty properties being used to house those on local authority waiting lists.


Community-led housing for local people, not oppressive Whitehall diktats

• Local Housing Trusts: Allowing villages and towns to create entirely new community-led bodies with planning powers to develop local homes for local people, provided there is strong community backing. Affordable homes built by Local Housing Trusts will remain in local ownership in perpetuity, ensuring that future generations can benefit.

• Break the monopoly on empty government property: Giving local people new powers to demand the government sell off empty or under-used government property, and opening up the Whitehall databases of surplus public sector land and buildings to public inspection on the internet.

• End the blight of 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 and the concreting of suburban family homes with gardens.

• Stopping the Whitehall imposition of unwanted development: 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.

David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, in introducing the report said:
“Britain's housing market has been stuck in a vicious spiral of boom and bust. Under Labour fewer homes have been built, in the wrong places and of the wrong kind, while the explosion of unregulated household debt has encouraged speculation on the housing market. We have swung from a crisis of affordability to a housing crash in a matter of months, with devastating effects on families, communities and the wider economy.

“Houses are not really like every other investment. While houses may have a price, homes have a value. We need to kick our addiction to house price volatility and concentrate on making sure we build enough homes so that every community can meet its housing needs.”

Grant Shapps, Shadow Minister for Housing, commented:
“In the 1980s, the Conservative Right to Buy gave the opportunity for millions of families to get onto the housing ladder and transformed housing estates by creating mixed communities. Thirty years on, we will build on this. We need social housing that promotes opportunity and social mobility, rather than reinforcing welfare dependency. And we need a compassionate housing policy that recognises the need to house the vulnerable and tackle the soaring waiting lists under Labour.

“Our plan for an equity stake for social tenants will transform communities for the better. It will reward the socially responsible citizens who pay their rent on time and keep their kids in check, and restore a sense of pride in their neighbourhood as they will have a direct financial stake in its general wellbeing.”