A NEW VISION
FOR HOUSING & CARE
ISSUES
To sum up; The Planet and People Coalition would promote sustainability, not continuous growth and build communities, not just estates. We are seeing people moving around the globe seeking a better life, when their own countries should be improved so they do not want to leave at this point in time.
We should strive to eliminate poverty, hatred and discontentment.
Stop new developments building to sell & building to rent.
1 - Create a Land Community Trust in every District to oversee developments.
2 - Stop all building, where planning permission has been granted, but not started or finished. Create a Trust to build on these sites.
3 - Cap development land at £100,000 an acre, or ten times agricultural value.
4 - Build houses for £100,000, add £20,000 for the Trust. The capital is then used to underwrite loans to first time buyers, and enlarge village shops to cater for the local needs, thus saving residents travelling to towns to shop. Introduce a new layout and design, to include work from home departments and light industry close to developments.
5 - Stop building to rent, and buy to let (rents never end).
6 - Private renters should be allowed to purchase their rented properties. Landlords to offer to reinvest sold property by putting the capital from it into a Family Care Plan with no Capital Gains Tax. Plus, exemptions for some old type Estates.
7 - Council tenants should not pay rent if they have been tenants for 30 years - just a maintenance fee.
8 - Couple new housing with a Care Plan, by which unused capital can be passed on to other family members.
9 - Create Natural Habitat for wildlife on new developments.
10 - The Trust would build the Care homes and Retirement homes on new sites, from the capital they receive from people paying into the Trust. The Trust could pay interest on the capital at say 4%. If a person needed to go into care or a retirement home, they would have savings and the sell-back capital from their home amounting to over £200,000.
11 - Public Right of Appeal. There would be an inquiry to consider all the objections to an application, not as now where we have public letters sent in to the Council, which can be ignored. At the planning meeting, the public only has three speakers and two minutes to speak. This equals just 6 minutes.
If they were to rent new accommodation and pay for the care if needed, they would have enough to last several years without relying on the State benefits.
We have pigs remaining on farms in the UK, as the paper work since leaving the EU has meant they can't risk exporting them to Europe. Then, if one visits a super-market you only find bacon from Denmark or the Netherlands. We are told that we are going to be able to export British beef to China, then we import beef from the Americas. They in turn are cutting down the rain forest to grow soya beans to feed the cattle or create more grazing land.
One has to ask, is all this global trade necessary? Why not feed the home lands first? How daft not to!
Is There Another Way?
There is no need for anyone to be thirsty, hungry or homeless on the planet, but there are many.
There was a time when we could rely on local authorities to take on the role of developing all kinds of community projects from social housing to leisure centres. Not anymore. Private developers have taken over this role, but we have to recognise that their main objective is to make a profit, and as significant profit can only come through selling relatively large numbers of flats and small houses. it is easy to understand why so many schemes are considered by so many citizens to be inappropriate.
A community Land Trust would compete with private developers to purchase suitable sites and then develop them on a not for profit basis. Such sites will be developed by the community, owned and managed by the community, for the community. People on the housing waiting list would be housed before anyone from outside the area, unless there were special circumstances.
Britain and western countries are saturated with consumer goods. People are being made redundant and other employers are not taking on new staff. The younger generation coming from education are unable to find work. We are living through the biggest financial crisis to consume North America and Europe for over 50 years. A crisis brought about by a system of greed and recklessness. The free market economics has come to dominate the world over the last three decades. We should be looking at alternatives to the system.
THE FUTURE
We may be looking at working 3 or 4 days a week in the future. There needs to be a way one can survive on one’s income without state handouts.
Politicians, councillors and financial experts should face up to the fact that unemployment is not going to fall, the arrival of commercialism and computers in the 50s started the decline in jobs. We now have automated machinery and robot devices and still the so-called professional pretend it is not happening. For most people all they want is to be happy, to have a home, enough food, a family and friends, and have enough money to pay their way. But what do we have? There is homelessness, starvation and lawlessness on a global scale. When many people go to work, they sit in traffic queues and cramped trains often for a dead end job just to pay a mortgage or rent, and struggle to pay the rest of the bills.
HAVE YOU EVER ASKED, ‘WHAT IS THE POINT?’
With plants and machinery idle, and with stockpiles of materials, it is evidently not a shortage of labour or capital that is causing distress in the building industry. The problem is that land hoarding and land speculation have driven the price beyond a point at which profitable operation is not possible, not only immediately but in the foreseeable future. Around us already, our welfare state is beginning to crumble.
No doubt big business is the cause of the financial crisis on a global scale. It would appear there are some people who have too much capital. They can destroy others by their actions. It is not the fact they have too much money, but what they choose to do with it that causes problems. State capitalism is also a failed system. It may be said we have a market system, but it is the market which is not working, there needs to be a third way.
INTERESTED IN A CO-OP OPPORTUNITY IN EAST SUSSEX?
We are looking for like-minded individuals who would want to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Any ideas that you can bring to the table are also welcome. Together, we hope to bring a welcoming community farm to our region.
Please also view Campaign for Change
SEND US A MESSAGE
The Planet and People Coalition
Registered Company Number 11199364.
Registered Office: Cortlandt, George Street, Hailsham, East Sussex BN27 1AE
Visit: www.landandleisurecoop.co.uk
