Greens call for Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter
Green Party councillors became the main opposition party after 2022 council elections.
Reading Green Party has announced its candidates to stand in the 4 May local elections. A total of 17 Greens are to stand across all wards in the Reading Council elections.
The local Green Party also called for Reading Council and the government to sign up to a new Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter [3] to beat the housing crisis and ensure green spaces are protected. [1]
Green Councillor Rob White (Park Ward), leader of the main opposition party on Reading Council said: “I’m delighted to unveil our team of fantastic Green Party candidates ready to represent communities across Reading in the council elections on Thursday 4 May.
“Last year we overtook the Conservatives and became the second-largest party on Labour-run Reading Council. As the main opposition party we have been better able to hold the council to account and push Green priorities like insulating homes, improving our green spaces and tackling rubbish problems. Vote Green for hard-working councillors, a fairer, greener and cleaner town and to keep the Green Party as the second-largest party in Reading ahead of the Conservatives.”
The full list of candidates is below.
On the Green Party’s Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter, Green candidate Councillor Josh Williams (Park Ward), said, “We need local and national government to work together to deliver the homes people need and can afford to rent and buy, not just more expensive flats. We need our local council, supported by the government, to build quality, affordable housing in the right place, with the right supporting infrastructure and facilities. Unfortunately in Reading the Labour-run council simply isn’t delivering enough affordable housing.
“The Green Party’s Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will protect valuable green space, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty, and provide genuinely affordable housing. In Reading, we’re facing developers being allowed to build endless flats and houses that local people often can’t afford to live in. Developers are being allowed to ride roughshod over the needs of communities and the environment and this has got to stop.”
The Charter would also provide greater protection for renters, as Green candidate and Councillor Josh Williams explained:
“With homes that are unaffordable to buy, unaffordable to rent and unaffordable to heat there is a generation of people trapped in the private rental market by spiralling rents that bear no relationship to incomes.
“In the short term, the Green Party would introduce an immediate rent freeze and eviction ban to prevent people being made homeless in the middle of this cost of living crisis. In the longer term, we would give councils the power to bring in rent controls in areas where the housing market is overheated, and always demand more affordable and social housing from developers.
“Everyone deserves a place that they can call home.”
Full list of candidates.
Abbey Ward – Howard Darby
Battle Ward – Callum Harling
Caversham Ward – Mark Palmer
Caversham Heights Ward – Danny McNamara
Church Ward – Brent Smith
Coley Ward – Isobel Hoskins
Emmer Green Ward – Wendy Rooke
Katesgrove Ward – Councillor Doug Cresswell
Kentwood Ward – Caroline Hearst
Norcot Ward – Richard Walkem
Park Ward – Councillor Josh Williams and Sarah Magon
Redlands Ward – Kate Nikulina
Southcote Ward – Jamie Whitham
Thames Ward – Mike Harling
Tilehurst Ward – Gabriel Berry-Khan
Whitley Ward – Kathy Smith
ENDS
Notes
1 The number of households in England is projected to rise from 23.2 million in 2018 to 26.9 million in 2043 – an average increase of around 150,000 households per year. (ONS, Household projections for England, 2018-based: Principal projection dataset, 29 June 2020). According to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ ‘English housing survey 2021-22’, 4.6 million households (19%) rent privately; 4 million households (17%) rent from a social landlord, and 65% of households in 2021-22 were owner occupiers These comprised 35% who owned their home outright and 30% with a mortgage.
2 The Green Party currently has 563 councillors on 172 principal authority councils in England and Wales. It will be defending 281 seats in this year’s local elections in May and will be looking to make further gains across the country.
3 The Greens’ Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter would:
- End the housing crisis by creating enough affordable homes – including 100,000 new council homes a year built to the Passivhaus or equivalent standard
- Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use
- Transform the planning system to:
- Incentivise renovation and improvement of existing buildings to reduce the environmental impact of new construction
- Incentivise local authorities to spread small developments across their areas, where appropriate, rather than building huge new estates
- Protect valuable green space for communities
- Require new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local services, such as providing extra school and GP places and better bus services
- Transform building regulations to ensure:
- all new private and public sector housing meets Passivhaus or equivalent standards
- house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes
- Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life
- Introduce rent controls
- End no-fault evictions