AFFORDABLE HOUSING - THE CON

During the past few months I have talked with many people about the disaster that is Isles Quarry. One topic that has come up over and over again is "affordable housing", we need homes for our children.

The first, and most important aspect is that when Government, TMBC and the PC refer to affordable housing, it is not the same thing that we mean. When we say affordable housing, we mean houses that ordinary people can afford, and that is not the same thing.

Jackie and I have personal experience of the housing problem in BG. When we married in 1968, we had to live with her Dad on Fairfield. We then moved to a caravan in Harvel and saved hard, until eventually, on one of the downturns in the property market, we managed to buy our current house.

There has always been a shortage of housing in Borough Green because any availability is always snapped up by outsiders, largely commuters from London. Building even more houses at IQW will only attract in more moneyed outsiders, and our children will still have to leave BG to start their own homes.

In 50s there were about 300 houses in BG, there are now nearly 1800 : if that level of increase didn't fulfil our needs, we can never catch up.

The only answer that can work is for the Housing Associations and Government to introduce controls that prioritise local people : but that won't happen, because  it is a solution that doesn't provide large swathes of Greenbelt Land for greedy developers and their bought politicians.

It is also perverse that with the current environmental threats and escalating energy prices, the Government is fostering policies that will increase travel. It should be an axiom of Government policy that people should live where they work, and not have to travel all over the country: a train may be marginally less polluting than a car or bus, but it still causes unnecessary pollution.

Coincidentally, that also highlights the reason for support for local industry at IQW : it provides a wealth of jobs within walking distance of what has become a major population centre in recent years, and replaces all the local industries already lost to rapacious housing developers.

(Lillico's, Caines, Optilon/Brymitre, Saunders Caravans,Faithful/Magnet, Odhams/Butterworth, Mayhews, Fourways, Fox & Hounds, Rock, Red Lion, Bus Depot, Durling, Tillmans Antiques, Goddards, Rex Cinema, P&H Coaches, Brickmakers, Watkins, Chapel St Saddlers/Antiques, Station Yard, Hunts Farm/Naylors, to name but a few)

PS I was raised on what used to be called "Council Estates", so I am not opposed to Social housing from any spurious "Class" reasons.