We'd love to talk to you, so if you would like some more information please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

info@sturgessvandamme.co.uk

Telephone: +044 01275 349 011

Fax: +044 01275 349 368

SOUTH WEST HOUSING INITIATIVE URGES TORIES TO ABANDON PLANS FOR SOUTH WEST TO BE LUMPED IN WITH SOUTH EAST FOR HOUSING POLICY

The South West Housing Initiative – a unique partnership of major house-builders, housing associations, housing professions, and employers – has called on David Cameron to abandon plans to combine the South West with the South East for consultation on the Conservative party‘s green paper on housing.

The move follows David Cameron‘s visit to the South West and a question-time session in Padstow, Cornwall.

The South West Housing Initiative‘s representative at the Padstow event was Teresa Butchers, Chief Executive of the Devon & Cornwall Housing Group.

She has now written to the Conservative leader, welcoming his party‘s production of a shadow green paper on housing, but decrying the plan to stage a consultation process that combines the South West, which has the country‘s biggest housing crisis and biggest affordability gap, with the prosperous South East.

In her letter to the Tory leader, Ms Butchers said:  “I‘m sure that you will have learned from your stay in Padstow that the South West, while being the fastest growing region economically, has the country‘s biggest affordability gap and a huge housing crisis, with different planning, housing, and financial issues from the South East.

“For these reasons, we would very much welcome a South West regional consultation by your team, and would be happy to facilitate this for them”, she added.

“The current state of the housing market has seen a massive reduction in the number of new homes being built in this region, at a time when the Government has recognised the need for 30,000 new homes per year to meet demand, bridge the affordability gap, and enable key-workers and low-earners to stay in this region to sustain its economy. 

“Targets for house-building and affordable homes are meaningless without initiatives to counter the current market down-turn:  all aspects of that issue are vastly different between the contrasting circumstances in the South East and the South West”, said Ms Butchers. 

END                15th August 2008  

For further information please contact David Sturgess, Sturgess Van Damme, on 01275 349011 or email david@sturgessvandamme.co.uk

Further information:  Martin Willey   07836-315896