|

John Baron MP welcomes plans to shake up social housing

28 May 2009

MP says we can cut waiting lists and protect Green Belt

John Baron MP has welcomed Conservative plans to reward social tenants with a share in their rented property, cut local authority waiting lists, and protect the Green Belt from Whitehall bureaucrats. The plans include:

Rewards for good behaviour: offering social tenants with a record of five years' good behaviour a 10% equity share in their social rented property

Cutting waiting lists: relaxing the rules which prevent thousands of habitable but empty properties being used to house those on local authority lists

Protecting the Green Belt: scrapping regional planning and enabling local councils to revise their current local plans to protect Green Belt land

Ending "garden-grabbing": reversing the classification of gardens as brown-field land, thereby enabling councils to prevent over-development

Commenting, John said:

"These plans would give responsible tenants a direct financial stake in the state of their neighbourhood; they would reward decent, law-abiding citizens who pay their rent on time, keep their garden tidy and ensure their children stay out of trouble."

"We can also cut social housing waiting lists and take more people out of temporary accommodation by making better use of habitable empty properties and selling-off under-used Government property and land for development as new homes."

"But we should also tackle over-development where it is imposed on local people by bureaucrats sitting in Whitehall. Scrapping regional planning will give councils far greater powers to protect the Green Belt and help prevent unwanted building."