Conservatives try to fool people on growth - Joint letter by local Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidates

Written by Joint letter from the 4 Candidates in the West Northants Development Area and published in Northampton Chronicle and Echo on Mon 12th Oct 2009

Conservative MPs and Parliamentary Candidates think they can fool us all on house building targets in the run up to a General Election. Judge them by their party's record not their words.

The Labour Government's creation in 2005 of the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation (WNDC) to drive through development was supported by the Conservative Leaders of Northampton, Daventry and South Northamptonshire councils. It was Liberal Democrats in Northampton who said NO.

Before that, in 2003, it was the Conservative councillors who joined with Labour in Northampton to vote down the Lib Dem call on the Council to oppose the housing figures being imposed on the town.

The consequences of both these acts are the plans we are faced with today.

The Conservatives then go on to tell half the truth about their current housing policy. In the introduction to a national Conservative policy paper on housing, David Cameron attacks Labour for building too few homes. The paper says 'the seeds of the next housing bubble have already been planted by Labour's persistently low rates of house building.' The same document admits that we need to 'deliver enough of the homes people want, in the places people want them in order to meet Britain's unmet housing need.' So what is the truth: the local Conservative's version, or their Leader, David Cameron's version? Which version do we trust?

The fact is that much of the proposed new housing is to meet the needs of Northamptonshire's existing population and their offspring, the homes that people will want and need.

Do Conservative Parliamentary Candidates agree with Councillor Curtis' suggestion of cramming people into high rise blocks in our town centre? Is that the kind of housing Conservatives think young families will want and need in the years to come? If not, how do they think they can get the affordable homes of a quality that today's children have a right to expect?

Liberal Democrats believe that Government have got the numbers wrong for Northamptonshire, and that we cannot sustain the housing targets being imposed and they must be challenged. But it is no thanks to local Conservatives that we are where we are now.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Simpson, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton North constituency

Paul Varnsverry, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton South constituency

Scott Collins, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for South Northamptonshire constituency

John Lathan, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Daventry constituency