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A thought on personal responsibility

March 18, 2016 1 Min Read

Over the last few months, I have been thinking about how we are individually much more responsible for events than we think and in many ways how this responsibility is not always clear to us as individuals. This process has caused me to reevaluate many of my previous decisions.

It is always easier to understand things when you have an example to illustrate the point, and for this, I will use the housing issues I have been researching as part of my involvement in politics.

First of all, let us outline some widely held beliefs:
– Affordable housing should be made available to people.
– Social and inclusive housing should be made available offering easy access to all modern amenities and be part of a local community.
– Capacity should be available to house people in times of crisis.

Almost everyone I have personally spoken to agrees with three points above and evidence states that most people do. This made me feel extremely optimistic and then I began to wonder why it is not happening?

If these are objectives that the majority want how could it not happen under any government?

I then went out to ask people who work in these areas with my starting point being affordable housing talking to construction companies they are more than happy to build houses, as the market demand is once again on the up and funding, is better than it has been for a long time.

It is true that starter homes are not as profitable as larger properties they could easily be part of any new development as could compulsory social housing. An area that government legislation or direction could help, but the forms that can take will be discussed at a later point.

The blocker seemed to be land being released to allow development many planning applications are rejected by local communities several on good grounds be it lack provision of schools, amenities or shops. Is this a reason to reject these applications or should they be encouraged to reapply outlining solutions to the above problems. That solution could be a mixture of government and private sector involvement.