Kirklees Conservative Defends Land Banking

In a bizarre contribution to the debate in Council in response to the Conservative Governments White Paper on removing blocks to building, the Kirklees Conservative Group chose to defend "Land Banking".

This is despite the government, the LGA, most conservative councils and just about everybody involved in housing condemning the practice. "Land Banking" is the practice of buying land, getting planning permission to build houses, then not building the houses, just sitting back and watching the price rise. It can be done by a speculator, or by a large housebuilding company. Typically the company gets permission to build, say, 200 houses, but only builds 20 straight away, it could take 10 years (or more) to complete the site, meaning that people who buy the houses have to spend years living on a building site, with dirty roads, congestion and noise.

The additional effect is that it reduces "available land" in the local plan and allows developers, aided by government inspectors to get planning permission on sites not zoned for housing, such as Green Belt Sites.

It seems the only people who think "Land Banking" a good idea are speculators and the people they collaborate with such as Bankers and Lawyers, and now of course the Kirklees Conservatives.

Kirklees Cons Care Con

Wanting to be generous to the Kirklees Conservative Group I thought they may have written their resolution to council before we received the conditions from the Conservative Government connected to the "one-off" grant we were given for Social Care. The conditions are quite clear, the money has to be spent on Social Care for the elderly. So I asked if the wanted to withdraw it. The answer was no, the thought we should spend £6m delaying the cuts to the Library Service, (cuts forced on us by the cuts to government grant to Kirklees).

They wanted the council to say, that as we are using reserves (more one-off money) to pay for Social Care, therefor we could ignore the government directive and use the one off grant to delay Library Cuts. The grant would only delay the cuts because the money is not in the base budget (that is the money we know we are going to get each year - like your wage or pension), so when it runs out the cuts would have to be made anyway. It's like taking out a loan when you have no money to make the repayments.

SECONDARY MODERN PLANS

SECONDARY MODERN PLANS

When most schools (all but 2 in Kirklees) are seeing their budgets cut, the Conservative Government can find money for their plans to recreate Secondary Modern Schools for 80% of pupils. In conjunction with their plans to create more "Faith" schools, schools with a  reason for existence to promote division within society.

The only selective state school in Kirklees is Heckmondwike Grammar School. In the 60's 30% of  pupils in the catchment area went to the school,  70% going to the two secondary moderns in the area, this was always a high ratio as most Grammar Schools didn't like to admit pupils outside of the top 20%.

In the 60's places at the Grammar School were allocated by the primary feeder schools, and all pupils (theoretically) had a chance of being selected. Now entrance is by examination set by the school and parents put their children up for the examination. Affluent parents send their children for special tutoring to pass the exam. The school in its striving position in the league tables has cast its net over a wider and wider area. No longer satisfied from attracting pupils from Kirklees, it now has large numbers of pupils from Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and even Barnsley. Obviously the parents tend to be better off, being able to afford the travelling costs. An interesting aside is that 50% of the pupils are now from the ethnic minorities, is that a comment on their abilities or the admirable ambition of their parents.

The school is no longer Heckmondwike Grammar School it is now "The Grammar School in Heckmondwike"

Eric Middleton - The Labour Candidate for Ravensthorpe in 1951

ERIC MIDDLETON 1951

LABOUR HISTORY

LABOUR HISTORY

John Moore - Heckmondwike

HOUSING HAND OUT TO THE RICH

HOUSING HAND OUT TO THE RICH

It is no surprise that the Conservatives choose to hand out money to the rich, but the fact that they do it pretending to be helping to solve the crisis that is in part created by the right to buy. The BBC article reproduced below show it helps those who don’t need it, whilst those without the high wages are stuck with bedroom tax.

About 4,000 households in England earning more than £100,000 annually are in the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme.

Official figures to December 2016 show more than 20,000 households who are not first-time buyers have been helped.

The initiative, which started in April 2013, aims to make buying a home more affordable.

But research conducted for the government found that just over half of those who signed up to it said they could have afforded to buy without access to the scheme.

Help to Buy was launched by then Chancellor George Osborne to attempt to encourage more housebuilding.

The government offers a 20% equity loan to buyers of newly-built properties and 40% in London, on properties worth up to £600,000.

The buyers have to put down a 5% deposit and, when the property is sold, the government reclaims its loan.

This means if the value of the home goes up, the government will make a profit.

Similar schemes were set up and have now ended in Scotland and Wales.

 

Labour's shadow housing secretary John Healey said: "While the number of younger people who own a first home is in freefall, the number of government-backed affordable homes to buy has fallen by two-thirds since 2010 and badly targeted schemes like Help to Buy are not focused on those who most need a hand .

"Labour would change that and make helping first-time buyers on ordinary incomes the priority for Help to Buy."

Gavin Barwell, the housing and planning minister, said: "We're committed to helping more people find a home of their own with the support of a range of low-cost home ownership products.

"Our Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme continues to make home ownership a reality for thousands of people, especially first-time buyers right across the country."

The government said it had committed £8.6 billion for the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme to allow it to run in England until 2021.