"Enough is enough" - stick to the facts on housing, Labour tells KCC ConservativesKent Labour is urging the Conservatives on Kent County Council to stop scaremongering and to engage in a grown-up debate on housing numbers.Responding to a recent press release issued by Kent County Council (Ref. No. 355/08), the Labour Shadow Leader of Kent County Council, Mike Eddy, said it was time for the Conservatives in Kent to explain why they wanted to put home ownership out of the reach of even more people in the south-east.The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, an independent body set to advise the Government, is suggesting upper and lower limits of house building so that house buyers in 2026 will have the same opportunity to afford a home as they have now. The research, overseen by a Board of respected academics and professionals, shows that the housing growth figures proposed in existing regional plans would result in an average national increase in the mortgage and/or deposit required of some £23,000 by 2026. The NHPAU's advice suggests that the housing stock in the south-east needs to be increased by between 18 and 55% (representing totals of between 37,800 and 49,700 homes a year) on the current regional level of 28,000 homes a year.Mike Eddy says: "This is a valuable piece of research in the debate on how we provide homes for our children and their children. It deserves to be treated seriously by local councils, regional bodies and the Government. It is a great pity that the Conservatives in Kent just want to use the publication of this research as a political football."Ray Parker, Labour's Shadow Portfolio Holder for Environment, says: "We have a duty to plan for the future and to balance the needs of the people of Kent and the county's precious environment. The Conservatives can continue to play party politics with people's homes if they want but the rest of us have got a job to do and the NHPAU's research helps us to understand the choices we make."Note to editorsThe Board of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit comprises:Stephen Nickell, Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford (Chairman)Prof. Glen Bramley, Professor of Housing and Urban Planning, Herriot-Watt UniversityProf. Paul Cheshire, Professor of Economic Geography, London School of EconomicsMax Steinberg, Chief Executive of Elevate East LancashireBob Lane, Chief Executive of Catalyst Corby/North Northants Development CompanyDr Peter Williams, Executive of Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association.
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