The Green Party is a social justice party. We maintain that affordable and
secure accommodation is a basic human right. Those without accommodation and
those forced through lack of choice into inadequate or unaffordable housing
may lead diminished lives and can be socially excluded, unable to participate
fully in the life of the community. The rising prices of housing and fuel are
putting our most vulnerable members of society at risk. That is why the core
theme of our housing policy is to ensure that the homes of people in Ipswich
are not only affordable to buy but also to live in. We would seek to achieve
this through action in 3 main policy areas:
1. Provision of Affordable Housing :
House prices in Ipswich are growing increasingly
beyond the reach of those who are most in need
of somewhere to start a home, producing a social
divide
between those with property and those without. Recent press investigations
have highlighted this need by exposing the fact that teenagers are being
forced to sleep in parks because hostels in Ipswich
are at full capacity. In order
to eradicate these inequalities, Ipswich Green Party would set an affordable
housing quota of 50% for all new developments, of whatever size. In addition
we would also campaign for more direct investment and protection of council
housing and encourage housing cooperatives and community land trusts. Keeping
in mind the impact of students coming to the new university we would also
press for rent control over the private sector
in order to protect new and existing
tenants.
2. Absent Landlords and Empty properties :
Figures released by the Empty
Homes Agency show
that there are 1794 empty homes in Ipswich, that’s
a rise of almost 250 from the previous year and makes
us the worst performing Borough in Suffolk. Compounding
this problem is the fact that many of the new builds
in town are purchased by out of town investors before
they have even been completed and in some cases these
people do not even need to install tenants to make
a return on the property. Despite these statistics
and the number of homeless people in Ipswich, the
council have given the go ahead for a further 342
properties to be developed on the predominately greenfield
site of Hayhill Allotments; potentially pushing us
towards 2000 empty homes in future reports. To counter
this trend Ipswich Green Party would like to see
higher rates of council tax for unoccupied properties
and second homes and to bring housing policy under
local participatory democratic control. We would
also review whether shared ownership is an appropriate
mechanism for Ipswich given a recent lack of local
uptake for such properties.
3. Energy Efficient Building and Fuel Poverty:
The biggest threat to some people in Ipswich is
not terrorism or anti social behaviour but their
own homes. Each winter, thousands of people across
the UK die unnecessarily from cold related illness,
simply because their house is inadequately heated
and insulated. Rising gas and energy prices also
threaten to return even more households into the
thresholds of fuel poverty. Ipswich Green Party would
work to eradicate fuel poverty in the town as soon
as possible. We would also use planning controls
to set beyond building regulation targets for all
new developments ultimately aiming for PassivHaus building standards; encourage energy efficient regeneration
of existing properties and actively encourage the
use of renewable energy technologies within the borough.
Email: John
Taylor, Ipswich Green Party Candidate
for Alexandra Ward.
Tel: 07766 495565
