Fylde Hustings: What are the plans for increasing affordable and accessible housing?

  • 2 months ago
The Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Post and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Fylde constituency at the upcoming general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.

The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.

Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.

In order of appearance on stage:

ANNE AITKEN (Independent)
TOM CALVER (Labour)
MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats)
ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)
Transcript
00:00you'll be glad to hear it's over to you and it's on the issue of housing what are the plans for
00:06increasing affordable housing which is accessible to people who have a connection to Fylde. Andrew
00:13start with you. I think the absolute key thing around house building is that it is done in a
00:19responsible way and the key thing for me is yes we need to build more affordable homes but we also
00:26need to protect our greenbelt across the Fylde and make sure that we don't do that at the expense
00:32of countryside that once we have built on we can never get back and therefore the conservative
00:38strategy around freeing up more brownfield sites around looking at redevelopment of existing sites
00:45is what we need to absolutely back. There's been about 2.5 million homes been built since 2010
00:52so the number of homes that have been built is significant the demand will always continue to
00:58increase as our population grows it's another reason why I believe the immigration controls
01:05are correct as well because we've got to have the housing but we need the infrastructure that
01:10we need as well and therefore I support the conservative manifesto around redevelopment
01:14of brownfield sites and the strategy around that because we have to do this in a responsible way.
01:20Just very briefly how can you ensure that affordable homes in somewhere like Fylde
01:24are genuinely affordable to local people and haven't just got the affordable badge planted on them?
01:32And it is a fair challenge and that is why that they put the affordable homes
01:36shares into new development sites because at the end of the day
01:40the Fylde is a beautiful wonderful place and it is a desirable place that is therefore
01:46expensive and it's about striking that balance between making projects viable and about giving
01:52people the homes that they want because there are lots of people who want to move to Fylde
01:56and buy expensive homes as well so it's about doing it in balance.
02:02Mark can we hear you on this particular one provision of affordable housing in Fylde is it
02:06an issue as you see it? It is it's an issue not just in Fylde but it isn't right that people can
02:12live in housing that damages their health and what we would like is a fair deal
02:20is a fair deal for renters as well it's not just about home ownership it is about renting
02:27and we would immediately ban no-fault evictions with default three-year tenancies
02:34and a national register of licensed landlords that is one way to start to begin to address
02:41the rented area. We would also abolish residential leaseholds and the capping of ground rents to a
02:48nominal fee. I must admit it was probably a few years ago I first came across this canvassing
02:56a certain area where people were telling me that they kind of had the freehold but it was kind of
03:01leasehold and they could be charged for a load of other stuff as well really confusing just that
03:08overall residential leasehold should be abolished simple and I think the other
03:14aspect as well around home building is house building is not for it to be done to you
03:21that I think communities must lead those developments and be a part of those
03:26developments so they are all cornerstones of what the Liberal Democrats would bring to housing.
03:32So I'm going to come to you next on this one. Is affordable housing in its current form
03:36fit for purpose in your view? Clearly not when people are having to move away to to afford a
03:42home. So what are we going to do? Well priority for first-time buyers increased stamp duty for
03:50overseas investors who are stamping up homes as a simple investment opportunity and denying them
03:56to people who live here. Holding local government to account on having properly consulted properly
04:02laid out local plans that pick the right locations for housing and then make sure
04:08that those locations housing are built in that additional stamp duty on overseas buyers will go
04:13to support more planning officers so that developers aren't able to ignore the conditions
04:19that are imposed on planning around affordable housing so that we actually hold them to account
04:24on that. We will scrap leaseholds, everyone will have the freehold of their home when they buy it
04:32and for blocks of flats that will be common hold so that instead of having to pay another company
04:37for your building you'll be held in common with the other people there. But the other thing
04:43Mark alluded to is where your developer has signed a contract apparently on your behalf
04:50for maintenance services with opaque charges and you just get a whacking great bill for a bit of
04:54grass cutting and hedge trimming on common areas on an estate. No, that will be given into the
05:00control of people living on those estates and they will have the option to find a better supplier
05:06locally do it themselves. What won't happen is they will not be tied into these contracts
05:13with often quite big companies who don't really care as well. That's all about making housing
05:18affordable. There's also social housing, there has been too much to-ing and fro-ing on schemes for
05:23funding social housing. I was talking to a couple of social housing providers the other day in
05:30Bolton, they're building some new homes but what's the problem? Every time it's small pots of money
05:34that they have to go chasing, all they need is some trust and some stability so that they know
05:39what they're doing long term they can bring forward projects and they can assemble land.
05:44That will help affordability too with some of the products that they have to help people on to
05:49owning by renting, rent-to-buy, staircase and a number of other schemes. That's all part of making
05:57it affordable but the other thing has to be that we deal with things like energy prices, we make
06:02sure those are low and stable because the cost of owning a home aren't just the cost of buying it,
06:07we need to tackle the cost of living too. Tom, thank you, and then just want to do the challenge.
06:13I totally agree actually Tom with most things you've said but we're filed, everybody wants to
06:22come and live here so we're building houses but we're not planning, we're not putting anybody to,
06:29you know, we're not, the building houses, the farmers are getting the fields flooded,
06:34they're not doing it correctly. Another thing is they're not putting in any infrastructure.
06:40We're bringing all these people into the filed, we're not building any more schools,
06:45we've no more GPs, we've got less dentists, so we're just making everybody come here without
06:52thinking about what we're doing. I'm not too happy about over developing it. We want our children
07:00to work in the filed if they do and have affordable housing. I'm not really happy about
07:05people having a second home, use it as an Airbnb, not being used. I just think the whole thing
07:11needs to be thought out as filed and how we are in filed. We're a small area really, we're a
07:18beautiful area, everybody wants to move here but we can't just keep building and building and
07:23building without any infrastructure. But yeah, Tom, you're quite right with what you said about
07:28these, well done, totally agree with you about all that but I'm not really happy about over
07:34developing. I'm sorry if you don't agree with me.

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