Homes and Planning: Demanding Better, Going Greener.

Homes for our children

People are living longer which is driving the need for more homes. We think those who grow up here, should be able to bring up their family and grow old here too. However, housing needs to be properly planned with the right infrastructure. Not just community facilities, but proper parking and green spaces.

New homes will last hundreds of years. Only building them to the highest environmental standards will bring down our contribution to climate change.

Affordable homes

During the pandemic, as we stumbled from one lockdown to another, we've grown to appreciate the delivery driver, supermarket worker, care worker and of course those in the NHS. Not just the nurses, but those who keep hospitals clean. Yet for most of these people, house prices are too high. It is time to payback our essential workers by building quality homes that they can afford.

Affordable does not just mean less cost in rent or purchase. It must mean lower running costs too. Solar electricity and thermal solar hot water systems, with grey water recycling can cut utility bills, ending fuel poverty for many.

Protecting our rural areas.

We've some beautiful towns and villages in our borough. We want to keep them this way. We recognise they're more sensitive to housing growth, and need better long term planning with the community fully involved. Some growth is inevitable to sustain shops and schools. But housing should meet the needs of the existing community, which means more social housing where the Council can control allocation.

We can prevent overextending our rural villages by creating green breaks. Woodland and meadows will improve biodiversity, also acting as green lungs, soaking up carbon from the atmosphere.