“Country man” Cameron in green belt pledge

DAVID CAMERON has promised to make protecting the green belt paramount to any house building plans as he declares himself “a country man”.
Prime Minister David CameronPrime Minister David Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron

The prime minister said safe guarding the green belt was a key part of a pledge to double to 200,000 the number of cut-price starter homes to be built under a Conservative scheme.

In the last of six speeches highlighting the key themes of the Tory campaign for May 7’s poll, Mr Cameron set out the Conservative platform on housing, including the previously-announced extension to 2020 of the “Help to Buy” scheme for young people struggling to raise a deposit on a home.

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Mr Cameron said a Conservative government would keep mortgage interest rates down, and warned that extra borrowing under Labour would force rates up, adding £1,000 to the average mortgage bill for every one per cent rise.

A Tory government would also guarantee the right to buy council homes and would offer more protection to private rental tenants, he said.

And he promised to protect the countryside by concentrating housing development on previously-developed areas, with an aim to ensure that 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites will have planning permission for housing by 2020.

Mr Cameron said: “When it comes to our Green Belt, I have been clear. The line remains scored in the sand – that land is precious.

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“I am a country man. I love our countryside. For years Labour’s failed regional strategies cast a shadow over our fields and forests, threatening to carve them up and cover them in ugliness.

“We’ve taken a totally different approach. And protecting the Green Belt is paramount.”

Mr Cameron’s pledge follows nearly five years of planning changes and house building targets in which the coalition has been repeatedly accused of overseeing an increase in building on the green belt.

The Government’s National Planning Policy Framework creates a bitter battle with conservation groups fearful at the strengthened hand it gives to developers seeking to build on green land at the edge of cities and villages.

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Labour leader Ed Miliband said the Prime Minister had failed on housing for Britain’s families, for many of whom the dream of home ownership was “disappearing into the distance”.

Mr Miliband, answering questions from the public in Brighton, said: “David Cameron’s plan on housing has failed Britain and failed families. For far too many people, the dream of home ownership is disappearing into the distance. Labour has a better plan to ensure that local first time buyers are given priority.”

Under the scheme, first announced with a target of 100,000 homes at the Conservative Party conference in September, the Government would release cheaper, commercial brownfield land for housebuilding - with properties reserved for first-time buyers aged under 40.

Such land is not normally made available for housebuilding and can be bought more cheaply, with firms signing up to pass on the savings to the buyer. Public sector land which is surplus to requirements will also be brought in to the scheme.

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Properties would be exempt from most of the taxes imposed on new homes, such as the social housing requirement and the community infrastructure levy.

Prices would be capped at £250,000 outside London or £450,000 in the capital.