Local Transport: Planning Developments Debate
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Chris Bloore
Main Page: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)Department Debates - View all Chris Bloore's debates with the Department for Transport
Local Transport: Planning Developments
Chris Bloore Excerpts(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)
Although it is a pleasure to be called, Sir Desmond, I did not intend to give a speech. But I was planning to intervene, so I will quickly say that I recognise the points made by the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins). I come from the generation that has really struggled to buy a home in the community that they are from. Many of my colleagues and friends who have done incredibly well in their lives—they have achieved—are still living with their mums and dads. That is something that cannot continue.
While I recognise the hon. Member’s concerns about development with transport not following, the situation that we have now is simply not sustainable. We have to be brave, both as politicians and local representatives, to ensure that we do not make the perfect the enemy of the good. We have to push things forward for our young people. They have had the same promises—that we will build those affordable houses; that we will make those developments connected to their communities—for 20 years.
I say this as someone who has opposed and supported developments in my constituency: I take the hon. Member’s point that we will never meet the needs on our waiting lists unless we build affordable homes, but we have to actually start putting spades in the ground at some stage. As representatives in this Parliament, we cannot continue seeing the low numbers of houses being built in communities like mine in Redditch for another decade. It puts the life chances of my residents at risk, and means that my friends have to move to nearby conurbations, instead of being able to raise families and live in the constituencies that they want to. I agree with many of the things that the hon. Member said, but I also think that we need to be brave as politicians moving forward.