Housing problems have dominated my postbag since my election so I see huge potential for the council’s twelve-estate regeneration plan to address people’s concerns. The strategy to deliver higher quality homes for local people on different budgets will help to keep families close to one another, put home ownership within reach of more residents, and ease the pressure on the council’s housing team for rented homes. I recently met Housing Minister, Dominic Raab, to deliver the council’s request for greater financial flexibility to fulfil their ambitious plan. 

The conundrum of housing development over the years, however, has been how to bring genuine benefits rather than problems for existing residents. Last week I visited the STC Group in Harold Wood, which trains local people in construction. STC are one of several education providers in the borough who hope the regeneration programme will provide long-term jobs for unemployed residents or those who had downed tools.

Good development ought to fund better infrastructure and local services, not just create additional pressure. Crossrail comes online soon, new bus routes are planned, and an additional c2c stop will unlock the Beam Park development. North-to-south routes across the borough need to be improved, however, and I have offered to assist the council in making that case to the Mayor and Department for Transport.

There also needs to be proper planning for the future. A number of proposed developments include new health centres, for instance, but we shall need the staff for them too. Last week, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the largest ever expansion of the NHS workforce, including five new medical schools, and I was delighted to have assisted the only successful application in London for more training places after making the case that we need additional GPs and hospital doctors.

While planning is rightly a matter for local councillors, politicians of every level across the borough will need to pull together to ensure new housing is an opportunity to solve problems not add to them.