Preston needs more affordable housing - and the school and GP places to go with them, election debate hears

The issue proved one of largely common ground at a hustings event ahead of next month’s general election after Preston’s “housing crisis” was raised in a public question.

Liberal Democrat candidate Neil Darby told the audience at the gathering that “more and more young people are looking likely never to be able to own their own home”. 

“It's not right and it's not fair.  We need to follow the Lib Dem policy, which is to build 380,000 houses every year, of which 150,000…will be social housing,” Mr. Darby said.

He also condemned the “lack of facilities” in parts of North West Preston, where there has been a rapid expansion in housebuilding in recent years.

“For all the thousands of houses that we have built, we've not had a single new school built [nor] any new doctors surgeries. It's causing a real issue and we need to sort it out,” he added.

Conservative representative Trevor Hart said Preston required “the right sort of housing in the right sort of places - [and which] is affordable”.

“[That is] a big question in itself, because very often [it is] not affordable - and also rents [are] a big issue as well.  We need to have a bigger say as to where…houses are being built,” Mr. Hart said.

Asked by hustings host Paul Faulkner whether his own party’s government should have taken steps to prevent developers being able to escape local planning policy demands to provide a fixed proportion of homes within their developments if they can claim it would make them financially unviable, he said that it was an avenue that did need “closing”.

The city’s most recent MP - Sir Mark Hendrick, who is once again contesting the seat for Labour - said his party would deliver “the largest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation”, including 150,000 council homes each year.

He added:  “We're going to…abolish no-fault section 21 evictions, where people renting can just be chucked out having done nothing wrong.

“We've got to introduce a cross-government strategy to end homelessness. One of the things I hate...is walking down Fishergate, seeing people…effectively living in shop doorways or in back streets, because the economic conditions over the last 14 years have got that much worse.”

Independent candidate Michael Lavalette blamed the city’s current housing problems on the ‘right to buy’ policy of Maragert Thatcher’s Conservative government 40 years ago, which allowed tenants to purchase council properties at a discounted rate.

“It got rid of council housing and forced people into the private rented sector. The consequence is that house prices are so high now that young people can't afford to buy or get a mortgage - and the rent in the private rented sector is more than a mortgage.  People are paying a huge proportion of their salary, either in mortgage or in rent.

“What we really need to do is return to..local council house building, where we had subsidised rent and proper, well-built council homes,” Mr. Lavalette added.

Joseph O’Meachair, standing for the Rejoin EU party, said “nimbyism” was also an issue.

“Everybody is in favour of building more houses, but not just where they [live]. We have to have a system that gets round that…so that we have independent arbitration that allows for houses to be built…where they can be affordably built and where they can be useful to the community,” he urged.

In order to be classed as 'affordable', a dwelling must usually be available for rent or sale at least 20 percent off local market rates.  The rental discount on social - or council - housing is around 50 percent. 

Meanwhile, Alliance for Democracy and Freedom candidate David Brooks - who also expressed concern about the lack of social and affordable dwellings - said housing pressures were down to the country having what he claimed to be having "open borders".

"We've had two million people come here in the last few years - two million houses is a lot of houses to build," he said. PRESTON CANDIDATE DETAILS

All 10 candidates standing for election in the Preston constituency were invited to the hustings event, staged by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lancashire Post, Lancashire Lead and Blog Preston.  Six of those on the ballot took part in the event.

The full list of candidates seeking election in Preston on 4th July is:

YOUSUF BHAILOK (Independent)DAVID BROOKS (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom)

NEIL DARBY (Liberal Democrats)

JAMES ELLIOT (Reform UK)

TREVOR HART (Conservative Party)

SIR MARK HENDRICK (Labour and Co-Operative Party)

DEREK KILLEEN (UKIP)

MICHAEL LAVALETTE (Independent)

ISABELLA METCALF-RIENER (Green Party)

JOSEPH O’MEACHAIR (Rejoin EU)