Sir Alan Haselhurst MP, Are the Conservative Party going to oppose or support the plans of the Government as outlined in the Queens speech of 7 November regarding the planning of major building projects?
Asked by karenf on Nov 11 2007 4:41:46 PM and supported by 13 members
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It depends what you mean by major building projects. What the Conservative Party have said so far as far as airports are concerned is that they will not support a 2nd runway at Stansted Airport which is good news as far as I am concerned but they haven’t committed to other things and I don’t think there is any blanket negativity on behalf of the Conservative Party towards all major building projects. There is an opposition to chop down imposition of housing targets. The Conservative Party is saying if elected as Government they will abolish the regional assemblies from which these targets come and will restore to the local authorities the power to set their own targets. This will come as a relief to my district council in Uttlesford, which is grappling painfully with the need to find provision for an extra 4,200 houses which nobody wants but which the administration has to make a decision and whatever the decision it makes will be unpopular.
The Party does not wish to see the imposition of these targets and we believe that local democracy should have a greater control of what happens. Whilst not denying that people who are in need of housing, we are already committed to providing thousands under pre-existing targets but particularly in a rural area like Uttlesford and the Braintree part of my constituency as well. What we need are add-on local housing schemes of which we have got a fair number, which are tailored to people that have some connection with the village.
We’ve had a number of successful schemes working with the Rural Housing Trust and these do enable the sons and daughters of long time village residents of having to actually have a chance of owning, renting and part owning houses in their home village.