BNP Manifesto 2010 : Housing: Sheltering the Nation

BNP Manifesto 2010 : Housing: Sheltering the Nation

• The BNP will allow local authorities to borrow on the open market to provide housing in their locality.

• The BNP will abolish the Homes and Community and Regional Development agencies and transfer regeneration and housing functions to local councils.

• The BNP will place each local council under a legal duty to build a number of homes set to a percentage of the waiting list total each year. These would only be available to British citizens.

• The BNP will introduce a “local connection test” for any applicant seeking social housing in terms of which they would need to demonstrate a positive and historical link to the area.

• The BNP will create a national infrastructure bank to promote regeneration and national infrastructure renewal.

• The BNP will relieve part of the housing crisis by halting and reversing the immigration invasion.

The Housing Crisis Facing Britain

Decades of Tory/Labour regime neglect combined with mass immigration have created the most serious housing shortage in living memory.

The most recent figures indicate that more than two million people are on the waiting list for social housing; that fewer homes are being built now than in 1928; that many first time buyers cannot afford a large enough deposit to access a mortgage from banks (despite the extent of the taxpayer bail out of the banking system); that overcrowding is now a feature in many families, even in the most affluent areas; and that many owner occupiers cannot afford to modernise their homes because of cost.

The housing charity Shelter has produced detailed research raising questions about local authorities failing to meet local needs through the availability of affordable housing.

The old-gang parties have conspicuously failed to ensure the availability of social housing, despite the fact that it would have taken a fraction of the money employed to bail out the banks to have successfully solved the housing crisis.

Key Points of the BNP’s Housing Policy

– All local authorities would be permitted to borrow on the open market to provide housing in their locality. New housing development bonds would be offered by local authorities to the money markets. Councils would preferably seek to raise funding on a collective basis, thereby improving the security of the bond and reducing the likely coupon.

– The Homes and Community and Regional Development agencies would be abolished and the functions of regeneration and housing would be transferred to local councils and dealt with via the Local Development Framework process. This will ensure that major planning proposals are overseen locally and not by remote government ministers or inspectors.

– Direct funding would go to every local authority for the building of new homes.

– Every local council would be under a legal duty to build a number of homes which would be a set percentage of the waiting list total each year. These would only be available to British citizens.

– New community development vehicles would be created to promote housing cooperatives and self-build. Such organisations would enjoy statutory funding from the local authority. In order to meet this goal, non-green belt land held by the local authorities would be transferred at nil market rates in return for nomination rights. The new community development vehicles would have delegated planning authority powers.

The new community development vehicles will prepare a business plan and sustainability strategy within the first year of their existence against which they will be audited and penalised as necessary. Community ownership should also be real and not merely token in nature.

– In order to qualify for social housing, new applicants would be required to meet the local connection test, whereby the applicant would need to demonstrate a link to any given area, by birth or employment. Because social housing is a finite resource (given that two million homes have been sold under the “Right to Buy” scheme), we must ensure that only genuine and deserving cases have access to new housing provision.

– The BNP would create a national infrastructure bank to promote regeneration and national infrastructure renewal for the 21st century. This would be similar to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

– The BNP would not permit housing associations to convert to PLC status. We further recognise that many Housing Associations have previously experienced financial difficulties and would therefore increase the grant rate for development.

– The BNP believes in quality rather than quantity. In order to protect Registered Social Landlords, we would break up monolithic structures which are a feature of modern housing and often bureaucratic by nature and would introduce measures to verify senior management competence and practice.

– The BNP recognises the importance of planning in the 21st century, but we do not believe it necessary to possess a Master’s degree to enter the planning profession. Mostly it requires common sense and practical experience.

– The BNP will refocus the Local Development Framework to concentrate on borough wide regeneration, housing, economic development and private sector involvement.

This would operate in conjunction with new county bodies to oversee local regeneration and infrastructure which would draw upon skills from the private and voluntary sectors.

– The BNP will enact legislation protecting the rights of property owners and residents from anti-social behaviour and from illegal squatting by so-called “travellers.”

– The BNP will address one of the major causes of the housing crisis by solving the immigration invasion.