On Tuesday I launched an exciting new raft of proposals for housing policy, centred around mobility and responsibility – particularly within the social housing sector – and empowering communities to create the housing that this country and the next generation need.
Following hot on the heels of Control Shift, this is the second in a trilogy of papers and our proposals for planning and regeneration will be released over the coming months.
The main proposals in today’s Green Paper, Strong Foundations: Building Homes and Communities set out how we plan to make this transformation of housing in the future.
It is vital that in Government we change the current approach to housing. Instead of telling people what will happen in their area, where development will go and what it will look like we must work with local people to create successful and sustainable communities.
Instead of stifling opportunity and aspiration through unimaginative thinking in social housing we must offer hope and allow those who wish to move up and out the chance to do so.
By getting rid of top-down targets, scrapping density requirements and garden-grabbing and removing the useless tiers of regional Government and then providing the incentives and joined-up policies to make wanted and thriving new development we shall build more homes than this Government has in 12 years.
On another note, the process of releasing these new and progressive policies is genuinely fascinating as different parts of the industry respond in different ways and points of view from across the board – tenants, home-owners, first time buyers – are taken into account. It’s these families and the young and the old with their very real housing experience that, together with the industry help to finesse much of our work and, if you’ll excuse the pun, are very constructive!
Watch my video: promoting radical new housing policies.
