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Selfish society slammed
ROTHERHAM MP Denis MacShane has slammed a "selfish generation of home-owners" for systematically opposing proposals to build homes on green belt land.
His comments will inflame a long-running row over Rotherham Council's plans to build 24,500 new houses by 2026 - many on green belt.
"There is a now a culture of out-and-out opposition to any proposals to build new homes on land where people want to live, that is close to their communities and in houses not high-rise apartment blocks," said the Labour MP.
"All the council estates since social housing began as serious policy 90 years ago have been built on farm, or green, or other local land whose soil is not contaminated by industrial effluent.
"Yet in the last few years any proposal to build on such land has met with ferocious local opposition.
"As a result the present generation of home-owners are destroying any chances for our children and grandchildren to join the housing ladder.
"This is the most selfish generation of home-owners in British history and until we confront our own selfishness there will continue to be massive housing shortages in our country especially for young and less-affluent citizens."
Mr MacShane also called for the Government to abandon proposals for new rules on 'garden grabbing'.
"The first act of the new Government has been to block the use of private land surrounding existing houses to build new homes," he said.
"This is sometimes denounced as 'garden grabbing' but the plain fact is that large areas of land around existing homes may be quite appropriate for small-scale developments. This has now been stopped by the new Government which will make it harder to build new homes."
The MP also said the time had come to scrap council tenants' right to buy their homes, introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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