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Are there really going to be 40,000 homes in the South Somerset area?

I was recently contacted by a constituent who was very concerned about this issue. Like me, he wants more housing so that there is a good stock of housing available of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

However, like me, he knows that what is likely to be built is low grade, low design quality housing built at the lowest possible rate and in the most advantageous and cheap places.

When the Government building programmers were announced it appeared that South Somerset were going to get just under 12,000 new homes. That figure then rose to 24,000 and now we are at the 40,000 mark.

Providing the current economic downturn does not mean the plans are pointless then what are my objections? Well, I am very concerned where you are going to put what amounts to a town the size of Yeovil. There is certainly not enough brown field (already used) land available, so it is almost certain that we will see green fields being built on.

But equally, will they be built without the services that are so important for the needs of a community. Schools, health facilities, drainage, water purification, transport etc. While some of these do get considered we know that many of them do not.

Nothing less than the future of our green and pleasant land is at stake.

It is obvious that the economy is in a fluctuating state and is tippling on the edge of chaos - much of it because of the appalling way the economy has been handled in the past year, let alone the past ten years.

But my house is an interesting story as it tells you a story about an economy being based on the very personal aspect of 'sentiment'. Economics is much about facts, statistics and projections, but my house seems to tell a story of an economy governed by the more personal mood of those who make the economy go round; people.

Put frankly people are feeling poorer and nervous. The fact that the average family is spending more (£1,300 more) then it was a year ago is bound to cause pressure as families either face up to trying to maximise their income or making cut backs in their spending - not an easy task when you have children!

But what about the nervousness? Well, house prices where I live are in a very strange position. There are obviously not many people out buying as they try to batten down the hatches in case the economy goes into freefall. Equally, and perhaps oddly in a supposedly falling market with few transactions, there has not been the expected flood of houses onto the market. Demand might not be soaring but then neither is supply; as a consequence prices are not falling in the manner you would expect in a period of over supply. So, is this a sign of nervousness, where buyers and sellers, in equal measure are too nervous to commit? This is a stagnant economy, and whilst the Government might well tout the view that we are all OK in the long-run, my fear is that in the long-run a stagnant economy can very easily tip into a recession. Is the Government doing anything about this?

Well, in housing terms ,which is clearly the largest asset of many of us, they are not. The Bank of England, rightly, has inflation as its target and whilst the economy slows, and the risk of rising inflation increases their minds will probably be set on increasing interest rates not letting them come down - bringing them down 'might' act as a stimulus package for the economy. I have never been sure as to whether their concern must be the wider economy or merely the target they are set by Government.

So for now, buyers and sellers, me included, are stuck in a stand-off and none of us really know when the tide might turn.

Kevin Davis pledges to help first-time buyers and families across Yeovil

Conservatives will build stable, safer and greener communities

Kevin Davis, Conservative Parliamentary candidate welcomed this week new proposals designed to help families and first-time buyers, unveiled at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool. The policies reflect the Conservative agenda of strengthening families, giving local communities more power over their lives, and building stable and greener communities.

• Cutting stamp duty for first-time buyers: Buying a home is an aspiration for millions of people, but is becoming increasingly out of reach. Gordon Brown has made houses less affordable with his stealth tax rises. The current stamp duty threshold is just £125,000, meaning over half of first-time buyers now pay stamp duty. Conservatives will abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers on homes up to £250,000. This will mean that nine out of ten first-time buyers will pay no stamp duty. The average house price for first time buyers in the South West is £162,433.

• Increasing the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million: Under Gordon Brown, the inheritance tax threshold has not been increased in line with house price inflation. Conservatives will raise it from the current level of £300,000, so that only millionaires pay inheritance tax. For 98 per cent of families, this will take the family home out of inheritance tax altogether. In Yeovil the average detached house prices is £315,103 and 47% of detached houses that are sold are above the current threshold.

• Abolishing Home Information Packs: Labour’s new red tape threatens to undermine the stability of the housing market and increase the cost of moving home. Conservatives will abolish Home Information Packs and look to implement practical ways of making it easier to move home.

• Building more family homes with gardens: Whitehall planning rules introduced by John Prescott are creating a shortage of family homes. Blocks of flats are increasingly being crammed in the place of existing family homes with gardens. Conservatives will scrap these rules, helping to stop ‘garden grabbing’, and will allow the market to provide new developments with gardens and sufficient parking spaces according to the wishes of local communities.

Kevin Davis said:

“Conservatives believe home ownership creates a stronger society. We will help first-time buyers get on the housing ladder, build more family homes, scrap red tape on selling a home, and tackle the unfairness of inheritance tax.

“Family homes are the bedrock of stable, safe and green communities. Conservatives will give local people across Yeovil, Chard, Crewkerne and Ilminster more power to control their lives and make our local neighbourhoods an even better place in which to live.”

Liberal Democrats give Gordon Brown the green light for Euro-style property taxes

Kevin Davis, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Yeovil, expressed concern this week at the small print of the Liberal Democrats’ new tax plans, which back a move to European-style house price taxes. Conservatives are warning that this could give Gordon Brown the green light to extend the new house price tax recently introduced in Northern Ireland to mainland Britain.

• Calls for 1% house price tax: The detail of Sir Menzies Campbell’s official tax plans pledges a “long-term commitment to a system of land value taxation” on domestic properties. It talks up the Danish system of a “national 1 per cent property tax” and regular revaluations. It admits that their policy of local income tax and “removing the direct taxation of property at all” is not sustainable, and therefore “taxation of property should be retained” via a “better mechanism”.

• Labour Ministers back the tax: Such a house price tax system has already been introduced in the United Kingdom by Labour Ministers. Since April 2007, all homes in Northern Ireland are charged a 0.63% tax on the value of the home each year (local taxes in Ulster are lower than on the mainland), combined with intrusive rights of state inspectors to enter people’s homes. Liberal Democrats’ backing for land taxes gives a signal to Gordon Brown to introduce the taxes in England. A 1% house price tax was also recommended by the Lib-Lab Scottish Executive’s report on town hall taxes last year.

• Higher taxes in Yeovil : A new 1% house price tax would mean a yearly tax bill of £2,133 on an average home in England, and £2,049 for South Somerset.

Kevin Davis commented:

“Liberal Democrats have already said they want to hammer families with punishing taxes. Now the small print of their tax plans reveals they want to impose new house price taxes. This could mean typical bills of £2,049 a year on families in Yeovil with regular revaluations to increase it further.

“Labour Ministers have already introduced such a tax in Northern Ireland to tap into the recent rise in property values. Families and pensioners who saved and improved their homes face soaring tax bills, without any improvements in their local services. Just because house prices have risen doesn’t mean that local residents can afford higher local taxes.

“At a time when the housing market is so bruised, it is alarming that Liberal Democrats are now giving Gordon Brown the green light to impose a new house price tax on Yeovil. Conservatives are now the only party pledging to stop these new taxes.”