Housing

This is such a wide area to talk about and is rather general so I will focus on the lack of affordable housing and if new houses where built where should they go?

KENT is set for a huge increase in housing with thousands of new homes to be built in the county over the next few years.

There is a very fine line on building new houses, on one side there is the need for more as the population continues to grow. More affordable housing is also in great demand as house prices have rose year on year way above the increase in wages. All this leads to people staying at home longer while saving to buy a house.

A big factor effecting the housing market is immigration, a topic for another day to discuss in detail as it is a massive issue in Britain today. The government have been shown to be more than sympathetic with them in finding them housing. To what extend I don't know but it puts a massive squeeze on the market especially as there are still people that are classified as homeless who should get priority to find a place to stay asap. Its all very well people coming over here and sharing there skills but its another 10,20,30000... houses that are needed. And where are they going to be put? I think as many existing estates should be redeveloped as possible and planned so that as little of the unspoiled countryside isn't eaten up. The last thing i would want is to be going for miles and not getting away from buildings, that is also why I wouldn't want to live in a big city.

Apart from housing the government must make sure that if the houses are going to be placed there the services and facilities are adequate as the more houses services like Police, Hospitals, Doctors etc are responsible for the service will suffer as a result. In my experience the current levels are already high for waiting lists for hospitals and it is impossible to get a dental service on the NHS in many areas.

Entertainment and Business also needs to be encouraged to give people somewhere to go to create a community rather than just a housing estate. These will also aid keep crime down, especially further north I have seen areas which have been almost deserted and its them sort of places which should be focused on redeveloping and reusing the land. After all we do live on a rather small island so the most needs to made of the land we do have.

Luckily there is groups out there that specialise in these sorts of issues. They work to make sure everything is done sustainably and help also give locals a voice in what happens in there area. The UK has a unique character that needs to be sustained and putting too many new buildings all over the place would have a negative effect on the landscape.

The last point I will make here is to the future of housing developments and as most other things in the modern world environmental issues are taking a larger effect on the planning and development of the buildings. Such things as Eco towns are in the pipelines and will probably use more effective techniques to construct and be more efficient in the use of resources. So in my area, much like the rest of the UK the housing production will continue to cover the landscape as long as I don't wake up one morning and find I am living in a brickyard with no greenery.