One Big Question: Candidates speak out on housing crisis

The Gazette asked all eight main parties at tomorrow's 'all out' elections what they would do to improve the accomodation situation in the borough.

It is the final part of this newspaper's 'One Big Question' feature, which has seen the parties answer a variety of hot topics ahead of polling day.

We asked the main parties: “How do you plan to tackle Basingstoke and Deane’s housing crisis, ensuring there are enough new homes for young people whilst protecting the beauty of the natural environment?”

This is what all respondants had to say, in full.

READ ALSO: Candidates outline their top housing crisis fixes

Labour - Andy McCormick

We’re facing our worst housing crisis in living memory. Average house prices are around 10 times the median salary, and we have flats with unsafe cladding.

We’ve lost our 5-year land supply, which means we are more vulnerable to speculative development.

We’ll need to build a lot of houses and sadly not all of that can be done on brownfield sites. We’ll push for the maximum green standards in building new homes, and estates where people travel the minimum distance to work, school or the shops, with most journeys on foot, bicycle or public transport. We want electric car charge points for all new homes, no new gas boilers, solar panels, maximum energy efficiency, and community energy and grey water schemes where practicable.

Certain areas, such as the North Hampshire Downs south of the M3, require designating as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We will also seek to designate more Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Conservatives - Simon Bound 

Conservatives are committed to delivering the new homes needed for local people while protecting our precious green fields. We have over 1000 new homes being built each year and deliver 40% affordable housing for local people. 

In the last four years we have also worked with partners to eradicate rough sleeping in Basingstoke and Deane and introduced a scheme where young people can borrow up to £30,000, interest free for five years, to help them onto the housing ladder. We also want to create a low cost register to help young people achieve their dream of home ownership. 

Conservatives believe in ‘brownfield first’ and that we should have more homes in Basingstoke’s town centre, contributing to a sustainable and vibrant local economy. Conservatives have introduced the country’s first Biodiversity Improvement Zone in Hatch Warren and we will look at designating important landscapes around the Borough to protect them from development.

Basingstoke and Deane Independent Group - Paul Harvey

We’ll set up a Council run Housing Company and invest in building homes people can genuinely afford on Council owned land.  

We’ll set a target of 50% affordable housing on every development. We want more socially rented homes, and market homes at reduced prices for starters.  

We’ll ensure that older people who want to downsize out of family homes have quality housing options to move into. This will free up homes for young families.  

We want all homes built to ‘passivhaus’ environmental standards. We want to see high standards of open space provision, renewable energy, and biodiversity gain. We want to see the infrastructure promised by developers enforced.  

We have to stop the developer free-for-all through ensuring Manydown is delivered to a very high standard. We have to protect our villages and towns from over-development – we support localism, empowering people to determine the future of development in their community.

Women’s Equality Party - Priya Brown

Based on my experience at a G15 Housing Association I believe that we need proper public scrutiny and regulatory enforcement of the current system. Any building should be on brownfield sites; there are plenty of them! Accessibility and a sense of community is sorely lacking and must change, because sprawling developments without infrastructure or community provision adds to isolation and disconnect.

The private rented sector desperately needs regulation: a register of landlords is a must. Rents must be reformed and be proportionate to the actual cost of living. Homes for young people should be fit for purpose, not an extension of uni digs. They must be affordable and should provide space and security. Right To Buy options should be open to all.

WE will push for housing benefits to catch up with rents, to stop homelessness in its tracks, and WE will fight for building designed with the environment and community in mind!

Green Party - Stephen Philpotts 

The provision of homes should not be based on the perception that landowners and developers can build houses anywhere to make a profit. The price of finding a place to live needs to be reduced. The aim should be to build cheap, sustainable accommodation, using the most efficient design and technology. We should be using brownfield sites wherever possible and office-space that is not likely to be used again as workplaces after COVID.

We need to move away from the current conceptions around housing – away from small starter homes to more modular buildings that house many people in an energy-efficient way. Unfortunately, this means changing from our current perception of everybody owning a 4-bedroom house with land and a car.

There needs to be a mix of council-owned, housing association and private ownership. Housing needs to be planned in conjunction with the local job economy rather than housing for commuters.

Hampshire Independents - Alan Stone

Hopefully as businesses have to learn to recruit staff from the UK rather than relying on cheaper labour from Europe, companies will have to pay a higher wage to attract staff . They in turn can then afford to buy homes within Basingstoke. Starter homes in the town can be bought as low as £115,000 so as long as first time buyers understand that the 3 bedroom house with garage is not necessarily a first time buyers home and people understand that they may have to give up some luxuries whilst saving for a deposit, an affordable home is available here in Basingstoke already. This urge by the conservatives to cover our green fields with housing is purely financial. Our need for housing does not justify destroying good agricultural land for more homes. Infilling and building higher is the obvious solution. 

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition - Mayola Demmenie 

This question is about one of our most important campaign points. The Tories have left social housing to the whims of the market with the result that thousands of families live in unsuitable,  overcrowded, damp and expensive accommodation in our town. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition would immediately put in place rent control measures and start a campaign to fund a mass council housing plan. We would use borrowing powers and reserves to start with and build a campaign to get funding from central government to carry it out. We would initially look at brown sites to build on, and empty buildings, but ultimately neighbourhood committees and the people themselves have to decide these issues themselves. We would scrap the bedroom tax and housing benefit for landlords and raise the quality standard housing should be. Council housing should provide a front and back garden for everyone and be eco-friendly. 

The Liberal Democrat party did not respond to invitations to comment.