Last week we received renewed hope for a long term solution to Operation Stack. £72million has been set aside by the Government to fund the development of a new motorway junction ‘10a’ for the M20. This was announced last week at part of a major investment in our national infrastructure.
When I previously organised a special summit conference bringing together all of the interested public bodies; including the police, Highways Agency and local councils; to discuss possible solutions to Operation Stack, the idea of creating a relief lorry park as part of the design for a new 10a motorway junction was one that many supported. It would make much more sense to create a relief lorry back as part of the motorway infrastructure, rather than trying to build something new in a rural area which would require special access routes to be created. I have taken this idea up with the Highways Agency, the Secretary of State for Transport and the local councils. Now that the funding is in place to create the new motorway junction, this could be a great opportunity to remove the blight of Operation Stack closing our roads.
Last Friday I spoke at a special meeting at the Chamber of Commerce in Folkestone for the Shepway Housing Initiative. This meeting brought together many different people and organisations that have an interest in discussing how we can meet the local need for more and better housing. The meeting was attended by Shepway Council and Kent Council, as well as local businesses, housebuilders, architects and estate agents. There is a shortage of new homes for people to buy and we also need more homes available at affordable rents. East Kent Housing has announced that it will be building new homes available to people to rent, which is welcome news, but we will need more to keep up with the demand. There are also interesting projects we can explore where local authorities have worked with investors to fund the building of new homes to rent; one such project is the partnership between Kent County Council and the property company Kier, in west Kent.
Overall, it was very encouraging to hear that the housing market and house building sector is really starting to pick up. Local businesses are confirming that there are growing numbers of houses being sold, and also housebuilding starts, following the Chancellor, George Osborne’s creation of the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme. Under this scheme the government will loan the deposit to the purchaser of a new build property. Finding the deposit can be the hardest part of buying your first home, so this measure is not only a big help, but is also giving construction companies the confidence to build, knowing that they have now a much better chance of selling the properties. This is good for the economy as a whole, as the house building sector can create large numbers of new jobs, and it also supports other retail businesses connected with furnishing and equipping a new home.