Raising standards to protect homeowners
Election Lecture with Grant Shapps
On 24 February 2010, NHBC kicked off its first election lecture with the housing spokesman. Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps MP faced an audience of industry representatives as he outlined the Conservative Party's policies on housing. The video can be viewed here, or a summary is outlined below:
Radical steps would be taken by a future Conservative Government to give local communities power over housing policy, Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps said today.
Imitiaz Farookhi, Chief Executive of NHBC introduced the event and welcomed Mr. Shapps.
Mr. Shapps opened his speech with clear emphasis on the Conservatives commitment to housing, stating that three out of the fourteen policy green papers published by the Conservatives were focused primarily on housing, planning, construction and local government.
Housing was one of the most radical areas of policy that the Conservatives had in opposition, he declared.
Mr. Shapps went on to outline the key points of each green paper starting with Control Shift; Mr. Shapps lamented the fact that under the Labour government since 1997 26 million fewer homes had been built in comparison to the number of homes built under the Major and Thatcher governments. The aim now was to ultimately turn that situation around, he said.
Taking the relevant measures to scrap the national 3 million target by 2020 and the undemocratic regional assemblies, the key he claimed was to invest power locally.
He then went on to introduce the second paper, Strong Foundations the key points of which were to form the main stimulus of the event. Here he noted the Conservative measure to focus on incentives for communities to plan for the sort of housing they need and satisfy the needs of the community to boost local economy and growth.
Mr. Shapps was keen to state the advantages of the 6 year plan that the Conservatives already had in place as part of their housing policy. Mr. Shapps emphasised the benefits and economic advantage that would come as a result from this scheme, especially to local councils.
The third paper, the Planning paper launched on Monday 22nd February 2010 was created to sort out the broken planning system already in place and called for a fundamental reform in the housing planning system.
He was disappointed by the fact that the Labour local development framework was too complicated, bureaucratic, costly and unnecessary.
Instead, he stated that it was imperative nonetheless to have a local plan and that each local authority would need to draw up a local plan within the 18 months of the Conservatives coming to power outlining where they wanted housing, funding and commercial and sports facilities - in all a detailed plan of the area. He went on to stress that in order to finance an area, pro-development was the key.
Mr. Shapps closed his speech by declaring that the Conservatives were keen to revert the UK to a nation of home builders at the same time, emphasising the point that it was important to create a sustainable area in order to boost local economies and also strengthen communities.
Mr Shapps then took questions from the floor.
These opened with John Slaughter from the Home Builders Federation asking how practical the transition measure would be, stating that it could potentially cause undue business risk.
Mr. Shapps was keen to emphasise that through the incentive measures that the Conservatives would introduce, transition would be speedy especially as the Conservatives are eager to introduce their Housing Bill as quickly as possible if they came to power.
Other questions included what advantages could be gained from development.
Mr. Shapps claimed that he recognised the negatives attached to the term "development" in itself, but he went on to say that he hoped to change the culture behind the name.
He went on to stress that the Conservative focus was on economic growth and the improvement of life. Ultimately, he saw the aim as being to redirect power into local hands.
This theme continued into the next question, when members of the audience asked how the Conservatives would aim to eradicate the feelings of powerlessness among the people.
Mr Shapps responded by saying that the creation of a rational system focused on re-empowering people in neighbourhoods would give the local community power and illustrated that the Conservatives were passionate about housing and giving the power back to the people.
The next question that was raised was to do with the practicalities of promoting a pro-sustainable development government.
Mr. Shapps began by stating the importance of nailing what zero-carbon 2016 meant. He then went onto state that the meaning behind pro-sustainable development would ultimately be down to what the local authorities think, stating that sustainability could mean different things to different local authorities.
He was firm in saying that the new system under the Conservatives would work and would work well from day one taking example from Germany, Sweden and the US.
He lamented the fact that Gordon Browns administration had shown no commitment to housing policy and that what was needed was a nudge in the right direction and a change of attitude, Mr. Shapps was eager to note that they would come to fulfil their pledge by increasing the incentives till it becomes irresistible.
Mr. Shapps criticised Home Information Packs, promising that this would be the first policy his party would scrap but confirmed that the Energy Performance Certificates would be kept in force.
Mr. Shapps was keen to note that energy efficiency measures were not just for new developments but also for the 25 million homes already built. He highlighted the proposed Carbon Cooperation plan, where every home would have access to £6500 to green up their homes.
(summary provided by DeHavilland Information Services)