Last week our new Prime Minister promised even more housing—an extra 3 million over and above previous targets—and no doubt Medway will once again be on the list of those areas required to build even more.
Apparently the country needs more housing for "key workers", together with more affordable and social housing. (Social housing is to you and I the old concept of council housing). Key workers are defined as public sector workers—so if you don‘t work for the state your working life is unimportant to this government!
Here in Medway the Conservatives have steadfastly tried to do a number of things with regard to housing. We have tried to ensure that developments are to a high quality standard, and also to persuade government and developers that the vital infrastructure should also be put in place.
We have tried to protect our green spaces, and have largely succeeded in doing that. There have however been many instances where government inspectors have over-ruled our planning committee—to the detriment of local people in Medway.
We constantly receive dire warnings about congestion and global warning, yet the government continues to allow our population to grow unchecked. There is some very muddled thinking going on.
Government policy is hugely flawed, as it continues to cram more and more houses into the south-east. Meanwhile thousands of houses stand empty in the north of England, and in places like Burnley you can apparently buy a terraced house for as little as £50.00!!
But don‘t worry—the government says that most housing will be on brown field land and some of the definitions of brown field land seem pretty green to many of us. In any event that still means green fields will continue to be gobbled up by developments at an alarming rate.
So yet more houses for Medway no doubt. We may have a new Prime Minister, but we still have the same old Labour plans to concrete over Kent as quickly as possible.