North Cornwall Conservatives - News - Grant Shapps MP unveils Conservatives’ radical plans for a rural revolution in housing at public meeting in Cornwall

GRANT SHAPPS MP, the Shadow Housing Minister, has unveiled Conservative plans to revolutionise housing in rural areas during a speech given in the village of Rock in Cornwall.

The ‘rural housing revolution’ will form the centrepiece of progressive Conservative solutions to housing across the countryside where homes are now unaffordable to many families.

It builds on Conservative plans for returning power back to local people, with clear democratic accountability and decisions being made at village level. People will have greater control over the size, shape and ‘look and feel’ of their community.

Six out of the ten least affordable places to live in Britain are in rural areas - traditional village life is falling apart as thousands of young families out are driven out of the areas in which they grew up.

Schools, shops, post offices and pubs are closing across the country as house prices have soared throughout rural areas.

A radical new policy which will allow the creation of new bodies – to be called Local Housing Trusts – for local people to develop new housing to benefit their community. These bodies will have unparalleled power to develop new homes and other space for community use – planning will be subject only to the agreement of local people. The homes built can be specifically kept – and made affordable - for local families

This fledgling movement will receive Conservative backing in order to allow communities to come together and build affordable and sustainable development across both rural and urban areas. They have struggled to get both planning and finance, often through a lack of information and understanding,

A recent Conservative amendment to legislation gave them a legal definition but a Conservative Government we will go much further. The Conservative Community Land Trust Taskforce has been working on the steps needed to make them commonplace and we will ensure that information is out there for groups wanting to start up and for local planners, local authorities and lenders to make them more supportive. We will look at ways to free up land, access to resources and expertise and expect them to spring up across the country.

This is the Conservative plan to enable more people to build their own affordable homes. Under the Conservatives local authorities will be encouraged to establish a register of families who want to join the self-build revolution in order that councils can assess demand and provide space for self-build communities within their new Local Plans, created if Conservatives come to power.

“Labour has failed on housing across the country, but in rural areas affordability is pushing young families out and therefore killing off communities – so we now need a rural housing revolution.”

“A Conservative Government we will return power to the heart of local communities and give people the tools to build – literally if they want to – the affordable homes they need. Instead of Government sucking life out of rural areas we will support communities as they take control of their destiny by building their own future.”

Sian Flynn, the Conservative Prospective MP for North Cornwall said: “'I was delighted that Grant returned to St. Minver to talk about his plans for rural housing - he has previously visited the ground breaking St. Minver Community Land Trust development on the outskirts of Rock.

“These proposals will help local communities to help themselves. I am delighted that the innovative, dedicated hard work of the members of the St Minver CLT has been recognised in this national proposal.”

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average sale price of a home in a rural area was in each year since 1997. [305094]

Mr. Ian Austin: The average sale price of a home in a rural area in England for each year since 1997 is presented in the following table:

Local Authority Area	Average earnings	Average house price	Price/earnings ratio
Kensington and Chelsea	£42,965	£1,172,789	27.3
Westminster	£35,670	£870,146	24.4
South Bucks	£32,544	£589,976	18.1
St. Edmundsbury	£27,302	£378,273	13.9
Oxford	£29,237	£370,852	12.7
North Cornwall	£20,611	£239,162	11.6
Cotswold	£31,062	£353,561	11.4
North Dorset	£23,857	£269,429	11.3
Camden	£60,088	£656,740	10.9
West Devon	£22,353	£243,721	10.9

Rural life suffering under Labour

5,400 post offices axed

The net number of Post Offices in England has fallen from 14,416 in 1999 to 9,047 in 2009; in Wales, the number has fallen from 1,402 to 974 (source: House of Commons Library from Royal Mail Group data, November 2009; figures from March 1999 to March 2009). A constituency breakdown is listed below.

The proportion of households reporting difficulties getting to a Post Office has increased from 6 per cent in 1994-95 to 10 per cent in 2007-08 (DCLG, Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housing: 1993-94 to 2007-08, September 2009, p.21).

200 libraries folded

The net number of public libraries in England has fallen from 3,066 in 1998 to 2,870 in 2009 (based on Valuation Office Agency Rating List data; Hansard, 10 June 2008, col. 144WA; Hansard, 12 November 2009, col. 872WA).

3,500 pubs closed

The net number of public houses in England has fallen from 49,520 in 1997 to 46,060 in 2009 (based on Valuation Office Agency Rating List data; Hansard, 12 November 2009, col. 872WA; Hansard, 10 November 2009, col. 280WA).

Since 2002, an average 8,743 pubs have failed every year (public houses ceasing trading – ‘enterprise deaths’ from 2002 to 2007; Hansard, 13 July 2009, col. 121WA).

Worsening ‘geographical exclusion’

45 per cent of neighbourhoods across England have deteriorated markedly and are more ‘geographically excluded’ as a result of the loss of community services during the last four years (Analysis of DCLG, The English Indices of Deprivation 2007, March 2008; comparison of ‘geographical barriers’ scores for each Lower Layer Super Output Areas in England, in the 2008 deprivation index and the 2004 index).