Affordable housing. Conservatives accept the vote of City Homes tenants to stay under Council control and support the work of Housing Associations in providing more rented homes and less expensive homes for sale, including shared ownership to help people to get on the housing ladder. We will not take part in the arbitrary “bidding war” as to the percentage of affordable housing to be included in each development – by their nature each application should be examined on its own merit. Affordable housing should be encouraged in the widest sense of the word – seeking to ensure all residents have a choice of suitable housing within their means, and not in a divisive way that excludes many people on middle and lower incomes from the housing market.
Traditional housing. The result of national Labour policies and local Lib Dem policies has been that far too many flats and far too few family homes have been built in Cambridge over the last ten years. City Conservatives have for some time been calling on all local parties to drop the big government approach to housing and start giving local residents genuine choice, and start encouraging schemes for the new family housing local people desperately need. See our planning policies for more information.
Anti-social tenants. Conservatives will crack down on the bad behaviour that spoils our communities for the caring majority. For example, we support the demands from East Chesterton residents that gardens are kept in order and that tenants are held to account for the condition of their properties all as part of their existing tenancy agreements.
A fair deal for tenants. City Conservatives led the 2010 campaign to get the City Council to help tenants with the digital switchover. It was unfair to make residents in smaller shared blocks replace their own aerials, when it would have been much more efficient for the council to at least organize installation of a communal aerial.
