“Valuing Housing, Improving Lives”
Valuing Housing, Improving Lives
A group of ten Conservative MPs from the 2019 intake has today set out an ambitious blueprint for the future of housing to rethink the social and economic role of housing over the next decade.
The proposals are contained in a post-Budget essay collection entitled “Valuing Housing, Improving Lives’ and encompass how housing policy and the planning system could be directed to supporting the most vulnerable in society, provide more ladders of opportunity and prosperity and build homes that are beautiful and are supported by the right infrastructure – be that trees, schools or roads.
The essays contained in Valuing Housing, Improving Lives’ are grouped into three main themes of supporting the vulnerable in society, promoting opportunity and prosperity for all and exploring the role in planning in creating successful and sustainable communities.
For helping those most in need our ideas include proposals for a ‘preservation of life’ Act to tackle rough sleeping (Nickie Aiken); support to victims of domestic abuse (Joy Morrissey) dealing with the blight of ‘Cuckooing’ (Dean Russell) and extending the ‘housing first’ system to a ‘prevention first’ approach that would allocate extra spending for frontline and preventative services (Robin Millar).
Essays concerned with opportunity include Simon Fell’s plea for how Barrow and Furness could benefit as a coastal and industrial area from greater support for economic and social regeneration, Natalie Elphicke’s case for ‘levelling up’ housing and the use of public finance intervention to boost home ownership and improve social renting and the key strategic relationship councils have around housing (David Simmonds).
In essays grouped around how we promote better planning, Jane Hunt advocates a green belt levy with additional funding directed at brownfield sites in cities and towns to make up for shortfalls in urban areas. Rob Butler makes the case for powering up strategic planning that is directed by community engagement and Jerome Mayhew writes of how strong and beautiful local communities are the lynchpin to constructing One Nation.
What these individual contributions all share in common is an understanding that housing has a fundamental social and economic role to play as both a cornerstone of the welfare state and as a ladder of opportunity and prosperity.
Providing homes is more than a matter of bricks and mortar. For us this agenda is about building the very fabric of successful and sustainable communities and supporting lives and everything that goes with it.
Contributors and Essay Titles
Part A The Role of Housing in Supporting the Most Vulnerable in Society
Live or Let Die: Time for a Bold, Brave and Caring Approach to Rough Sleeping
Nickie Aiken MP
Cuckoo in The Nest: from Vulnerable Homeless to Vulnerable ‘Homed’
Dean Russell MP
From Broken Lives to New Beginnings
Joy Morrissey MP
On Housing, Health and Happiness
Robin Millar MP
Part B The Role of Housing in Promoting Opportunity and Prosperity for All
Housing to Build Growth: Using New Homes to Transform The Fortunes of a Coastal Community
Simon Fell MP
Levelling Up Housing: The Case for Public Finance Intervention to Drive Both Home Ownership and Social Renting
Mrs Natalie Elphicke OBE MP
Councils and Housing — A Key Strategic Relationship
Cllr David Simmonds CBE MP
Part C The Role of Planning in Creating Successful and Sustainable Communities
Paying Green, Funding Brown – Planning for The Future
Jane Hunt MP
Strong and Beautiful Local Communities are the Key to Building One Nation
Jerome Mayhew MP
Infrastructure Before Housing: Reforming S106 to Bring Communities on Board
Rob Butler MP