Tory MPs set out new ideas for housing

A group of 10 Conservative MPs has set out an ambitious blueprint for the future of housing in a new collection of essays.

The collection – Valuing Housing, Improving Lives – has been published today by the think tank Localis and the Housing and Finance Institute.

The essays are all by Conservative MPs who joined parliament last year and include proposals for a ‘preservation of life’ Act to tackle rough sleeping, support to victims of domestic abuse and extending the ‘housing first’ system to a ‘prevention first’ approach that sees additional spending allocated for frontline and preventative services.

Other essays explore the role of the planning system in creating successful and sustainable communities and include arguments for:

• a green belt levy with additional funding directed at brownfield sites in cities and towns to make up for shortfalls in urban areas;
• a call to power up strategic planning through integrated spatial and infrastructure modelling that is directed by community engagement;
• efforts to deliver infrastructure in line with growth – at the right time and in the right way;
• giving coastal and post-industrial areas greater support for economic and social regeneration; and
• bringing brownfield land back into use and creative use of public land and resources.

‘Housing has a fundamental social and economic role.  It is a cornerstone of the safety net of the welfare state,’ said Tory MP Natalie Elphicke.

‘It provides the ladders of opportunity and prosperity. Providing homes and supportive services is about so much more than bricks and mortar, it is about building the very fabric of successful and sustainable communities and supporting lives.’

The chief executive of Localis, Jonathan Werran, added: ‘This paper rightly sets out considered proposals which prove how housing remains the single most emotive domestic political issue of our time – striking as it does at our sense of belonging of identity – as both an individual and as part of a wider community.

‘These answers to local housing are inherently capable of being unlocked within the individual contexts of people and place, and will need a multi-layered and differentiating approach. An approach where local leadership and solutions can be supported and coordinated in line with national ambitions.’

Photo Credit – Jarmoluck (Pixabay)