Greens today called for local councils across the country and the government to sign up to a new Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter to beat the housing crisis and ensure green spaces are protected.
Co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “We need councillors and national government to work together to deliver the homes people need and can afford to rent and buy, where people need them.
“Today, speculators and developers are allowed to chase the biggest profits and ignore local needs. Too many villages and towns have seen large-scale developments take place without the community infrastructure expanded alongside, such as GP surgeries, bus services, cycling and walking networks and nurseries and schools.
“What we need is local councils supported to build quality, affordable housing in the right places where people live and work, with the right supporting infrastructure and local facilities.
“Our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will simultaneously protect valuable green space for communities, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable housing. Developers are being allowed to ride roughshod over the needs of communities and the environment and this has got to stop.”
Co-leader Carla Denyer commented: “Everyone deserves a place that they can call home. That is why our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will deliver the change we want to see across the housing sector and create fairer, greener communities.”
The Greens’ Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter would:
- End the housing crisis by creating enough affordable homes – including 100,000 new council homes a year built to the Passivhaus or equivalent standard
- Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use
- Transform the planning system to:
- Incentivise renovation and improvement of existing buildings to reduce the environmental impact of new construction
- Incentivise local authorities to spread small developments across their areas, where appropriate, rather than building huge new estates
- Protect valuable green space for communities
- Require new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local services, such as providing extra school and GP places and better bus services
- Transform building regulations to ensure:
- all new private and public sector housing meets Passivhaus or equivalent standards
- house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes.
- Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life
- Introduce rent controls
- End no-fault evictions
