Views
Housing must be top priority - for The Inverness Courier
IT is all change at all levels of government at the moment. In a move reminiscent of eastern Europe before the wall came down, Gordon Brown is to be elected unopposed as our next prime minister. Once Tony Blair has completed his vanity farewell tour, Mr Brown will take office at the end of June.
Alex Salmond has selected his ministers in the Scottish Executive and the new SNP-Independent administration has chosen the best and brightest from among their number to lead the new Highland Council. These people have all taken on important responsibilities and they deserve our best wishes as they carry out their new roles, all of which will have an impact on the lives of people across the Highlands.
One problem that needs to feature much more prominently than it has so far on the agendas of these new administrations is housing. Every week at my surgeries I meet people who are in desperate need of a home, they represent many thousands of people across our region.
All too often, these people are young people with families who are working hard to build a better future for themselves yet are frustrated by the system. Whether it is in terms of housing allocations policies, investment in new housing, or benefit and tax credit rules, I would like to see more done to give a hand-up to those trying to take responsibility for their own lives.
There is a great deal of effort going on to create more affordable housing, but we need a step change to ensure that there are enough affordable homes to rent and to buy to meet the needs of local people. The Cairngorms National Park's plans to raise the share of affordable homes on new developments is pointing in the right direction.
But we also need to look at the way the housing market works. In Inverness, the buy-to-let boom is absorbing up to three quarters of all new two-bedroom flats, so precisely the sort of property that a young family might see a first step on the ladder is being taken away from them. The planning system can help tackle this, if there is a will to do so, but developers and banks also have a responsibility this area too.
The lack of homes that local people on local wages can afford to live is affecting all parts of our society. Local firms say that lack of homes is affecting their ability to attract staff and key public sector workers such as nurses are finding the same problem. Unless we can solve the Highland housing crisis, the hopes that we have for the future of our area simply will not be realised.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
Freedom of information laws rightly allow the press and public access to information on a wide range of subjects, including the travel expenses claimed by MPs. I believe that the right to know is important to improving government, by ensuring that decisions made by ministers, MPs, and civil servants are open to scrutiny.
The attempt by many Labour and Conservative MPs to stop the same rules applying to themselves shows rank hypocrisy. We cannot have one rule for MPs and another for the rest of the population, the right to know must apply to everybody. I am proud, as a Liberal Democrat, to be a member of the only UK party that stood against this appalling proposal. But Labour and Tory MPs forced it through.
It is little wonder that Parliament stands in such poor regard by people when Labour and Conservative MPs can club together like this and vote for a measure that effectively puts them above the laws that apply to everyone else. I hope that anyone who shares my opposition to this bill and wants to defend freedom of information will sign up to the online petition at www.ourcampaign.org.uk/foi. If this law is passed, it will be the first of many attacks on the public's right to know.
Posted on: 05/06/2007
