There is a housing crisis in Windsor constituency and we need a plan of action to tackle it. Last week many of us read about the length of time a couple with children would have to save for the deposit for a mortgage in the area; more than 18 years! In other words the children would have grown up and be hoping for help finding their own home by then.
Others caught up in this crisis are people like Denis and Patricia Smith who after 35 years of happy marriage and paying their local taxes are considering living separately as there is no suitable affordable home for them in Windsor. I wonder how many other people with disabilities have experienced the stress and anxiety of a similar position?
House prices here are amongst the highest in Britain and our nurses, teachers, IT specialists, engineers, shop workers and other essential staff cannot afford to stay in the area. Just last week the 24 year old engineer servicing my gas boiler told me he was working all weekend to save up but he was not hopeful of being able to buy in his home town of Windsor.
Developers will always prefer to build high cost homes to achieve the best profits but the local authority has a responsibility to balance this by ensuring enough affordable homes are built too. Affordable homes are often promised but not many of them seem to make it to completion and this is not good enough. Labour have a costed plan to build 200,000 homes in the next parliament and a many of them will be affordable, even in this high cost constituency.
Others caught up in this crisis are people like Denis and Patricia Smith who after 35 years of happy marriage and paying their local taxes are considering living separately as there is no suitable affordable home for them in Windsor. I wonder how many other people with disabilities have experienced the stress and anxiety of a similar position?
House prices here are amongst the highest in Britain and our nurses, teachers, IT specialists, engineers, shop workers and other essential staff cannot afford to stay in the area. Just last week the 24 year old engineer servicing my gas boiler told me he was working all weekend to save up but he was not hopeful of being able to buy in his home town of Windsor.
Developers will always prefer to build high cost homes to achieve the best profits but the local authority has a responsibility to balance this by ensuring enough affordable homes are built too. Affordable homes are often promised but not many of them seem to make it to completion and this is not good enough. Labour have a costed plan to build 200,000 homes in the next parliament and a many of them will be affordable, even in this high cost constituency.