Rising population leads house build

A) Turn-off (fix the leaky) tap?

B) Call the intransigent land-lord?

C) Build a bund to contain the flood-water and pray the ceiling (below) holds?

Now apply that analogy to our over-population led housing crisis. UKIP (and sane people) say ‘A’; Tories ‘B+C’ (knowing their land-lord, the EU, will not entertain any Treaty change); Labour/Lib-Dems/Greens are committed to ‘C’ (the floor is only 1/10th flooded; there is room for more; it boosts GDP/tax revenue)! There is more to life than GDP! Only ‘A’ addresses the problem, offering a real chance to control our future. The others only address the symptoms!

Why 155 new homes in Robertsbridge/Salehurst? Easy! UK population rose 7.3% between 2000-2015, predicted in 2008 to rise by 14.3% to 72m: ie. 9 million people (the equivalent to London; 600,000 people p/a for 15 years; 250,000 ‘average 2.4 family’ homes p/a). House prices/sizes are another issue for we have about 1 million empty homes (4-year’s supply!) of mostly speculative and holiday homes. Britain’s indigenous birth, death and occupancy ratios are falling, but uncontrolled immigration and immigrant birth rate is rising (ONS data), so today’s unpredicted/uncontrollable 150,000-300,000 annual nett immigration means about 1/3rd of new homes are required for immigrants.

And where do we build 250,000 new homes every year, for 15 years? A new London (in the Lake District?); 8 Clegg Garden Cities each the size of Birmingham?... or a 14.3% increase in every town and village by 2030: that’s 155 at Robertsbridge, 293 at Rye (The Salts?)... But what about 2030-2045 with a projected exponential rise of 24% (500 more homes at Rye!)?

We and our government are guardians of our countryside and future, but instead of politicians tackling the cause of our exponential rise in population (and thus man-made CO2), they duck the issue and demand we peasants decide which of our irreplaceable countryside we destroy in the name of ‘Localism’! As Chris says, ‘Wake up Britain’!

Barry M Jones,

Bixley Lane, Beckley