The average Plymouth income is £23K yet the average house price is £168K - a house price ratio almost 8 times average income – a ratio that is set to increase to 12:1 by 2020. Not only is this an issue for those currently on, or seeking to join, the housing ladder, but it also presents a challenge for the future: Plymouth’s is a new growth point and will see an increase its population by 50,000 or over by 2026. 

It is clear from meetings and correspondence with constituents, that housing is a key issue for many people in Plymouth – and so it is also priority for me as their representative.

I am taking action on housing in the following ways:

• By meeting and lobbying ministers - including the Housing Minister and the Prime Minister.
• As a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing Co-operatives and Community Controlled Housing.
• By undertaking casework on behalf of constituents experiencing difficulties with housing.
• By undertaking a through investigation into the housing situation in Plymouth (see below). 

Linda’s Housing Enquiry & Report

HOMES FOR THE FUTURE: Putting rungs back on the bottom of the housing ladder

The report is the culmination of a six month housing enquiry started as a result of meeting a constituent with a young family, who had been asked to move five times in five years by a number of different private landlords.  She was not a bad tenant, just the victim of insecure short-term housing.

The report also describes how it is possible to provide a permanently affordable intermediate housing market — putting rungs back on to the bottom of the ladder, and offering something other than traditional “affordable” housing, which soon becomes unaffordable again.  

The report also covers aspects of the buy to let market, social housing including looking at “downsizing” and the role of community groups in managing housing, and also in helping new mixed tenure developments to become thriving healthy communities.