Letter: The Government Should Stop Pressurising the South East

Published on: 24 Apr, 2017
Updated on: 24 Apr, 2017

From Liz Hogger

Lib Dem borough councillor for Effingham

In response to comments made on the story: General Election Called For June 8: Guildford Politicians Comment.

When it comes to local planning, what we actually need is for the Government to stop pressurising local councils in the South East to take more houses than our environment and infrastructure can cope with.

The Tory government has been completely cavalier in threatening councils without an up-to-date Local Plan with either government take-over or, even worse, giving developers carte blanche to build on our green belt with the excuse of the lack of a five-year-housing-land supply.

So this general election gives us the chance for a change at the top, or at least an effective opposition to make the Tories think again about pushing even more development into the over-heated South East.

Responses to Letter: The Government Should Stop Pressurising the South East

Stuart Barnes Reply

April 25, 2017 at 8:18 am

Perhaps I am being naive but surely getting out of the failed, corrupt and hated EU cleanly (i.e. out of single market, out of customs union, no foreign courts ruling over us, etc.) means that the pressure of numbers will cease?

If the Remainers will get out of the way we will sort these things out.
Paul Bishop Reply

April 25, 2017 at 10:22 am

I think Cllr Hogger is missing the fundamental issue. The reason for the housing need in the South East isn’t government policy, it’s to do with the dense population due to the huge job availability. The government policy is there to cater for the needs of the people.

Maybe what is actually needed is a better North/South linkage infrastructure to make it genuinely more viable for companies to relocate out of the expensive South East. This is the root cause problem, and this is what we need a solution for.

To simply not build houses won’t change the amount of people that live in the South East, it will simply make the ones that do pay more to live in ever smaller, lower quality spaces.
- Lisa Wright Reply
  
  April 25, 2017 at 6:42 pm
  
  Hear hear!
  
  Unfortunately, there is no long term plan from the government to increase employment opportunities to other sections of our country, probably because it would be long term policy and MPs only worry about the next few years.
Peta Malthouse Reply

April 26, 2017 at 9:58 pm

Sadly I believe Stuart Barnes may be somewhat naive.
Coming out of EU membership merely means we lose our place at the decision making table.

If we lose our place within the single market and customs union we will have to replace those deals with others or trade with other countries. If we replace our EU deal by fresh agreements with the EU we will have to take free movement.

There are however, and have always been, a raft of measures that the government could and should have taken to mitigate against that.

If we replace the deals with other countries then we will get, as the discussions with India have shown, requests to open up our borders to their residents.

The problem was never about EU residents who come to this country to work and contribute taxes it was always about austerity, the present governments chosen and failed method of managing the economy.