05/05/10…Conservative election candidate responds on local issues

THE Conservative party election candidate for the Henley constituency, John Howell, has responded to a series of questions about local, Thame issues.

Here are the questions posed and John Howell’s replies:

1. Do you think that the proposed 850 new homes earmarked for Thame by the South East Core Strategy will be good for the town, or not?

A: The people of Thame including those residents group to whom I have talked and helped accept that there is a need for some houses in Thame to meet our need and to ensure that the town remains vibrant and healthy for the future. The number of 850 has been imposed from above by Labour’s central and regional government rather than by a bottom-up approach from the town itself and it is therefore not surprising that it is does not relate to Thame’s own real needs.

Many local residents have already pointed out the difficulty that such a large number of houses would create for the town’s infrastructure such as roads, schools and surgeries and the problems of flooding – and they are right.

That is why, when I was first elected Thame’s MP I held a seminar for the town council to try get the town to focus on a vision for Thame and to come to its own conclusions as to what the right number of houses is. This work is now imperative and I remain ready to help.

I have already set out in the planning policies which I have written and which my Party has adopted how it will be different under a Conservative government by ensuring that plans are built from the bottom-up, that local views really do mean something and that there are real cash incentives available for councils to fund for example infrastructure for new housing which will make sure that we build homes instead of just houses. This is no time for tinkering with the planning system. Only a complete reform will serve our needs for the future.

We all want a say in shaping the place in which we live. By revoking Labour’s regional targets for local councils as soon as we are in Government we will bring the decisions on the number of houses back home. That is why I asked the district council to stop any work on its plans until after the election.

2. What will you do to persuade the government (if your party forms or is part of a balanced government) to do something about the economic viability of market towns?

A: The term ‘balanced government’ is one of the worst euphemisms for coalition I have heard. A coalition will neither be balanced nor be able to govern. Worst of all a coalition particularly of Labour and the Liberal-Democrats will push us further back into recession and will provide no economic stability which market towns need to prosper. The truth is that if you vote red and yellow you will get Brown.

The key thing for our market towns is to get the economy back in shape as quckly as possible and Thame’s business knows this. In a survey I recently undertook of the town’s businesses there was a massive majority in favour of Conservative plans to reduce Labour’s hike in National Insurance because it is a tax on jobs in Thame.

Secondly, we need to be able to attract first-time buyers to Thame. That should not be difficult because it is a great town. So why, then are the Liberal-Democrats proposing 7% VAT on new houses (currently 0%) which would add an additional