Johnson: We can deliver on 1m homes in five years
BORIS JOHNSON has insisted his pledge for a million more homes in the next five years is ‘deliverable’ as he outlined Tory plans designed to ‘empower’ renters and help first-time buyers.
The prime minister announced a series of manifesto policies on a visit to a new housing development in Wixams, near Bedford, where he tried his hand at bricklaying.
He vowed to change the law to end ‘no fault evictions’ which see tenants forced out of rental properties without good reason.
‘We’re the party that actually builds the homes that this country needs,’ Mr Johnson told reporters.
‘We built a record amount, 240,000 last year – 57,000 affordable.
‘We’re supporting the creation of a million more homes – help to buy and all the things we’ve already done, we’ll continue with that – but we’re also supporting the rental sector and helping people who are currently renting to buy as well.’ The party did not provide costings for the policies.
Mr Johnson smoothed cement and
A FORMER Metropolitan Police chief last night criticised parties for an ‘unthinking bidding war’ over officer numbers.
Sir Ian Blair said: ‘The British legal system and its police service were once the envy of the world... they look very tattered now.’ Giving the Longford laid bricks on a wall at a new home on the Willow Grove estate. He remarked that his efforts were ‘not bad’, before looking back and adding: ‘Kind of.’
Bricklaying foreman Matt Quinn
Lecture in Westminster, he said little was being said about crime, policing and criminal justice.
Instead, major parties were in a bidding war over extra police, varying between 20,000 and 25,000. Sir Ian, who led Scotland Yard between 2005 and 2008, suggested he was following in the footsteps of Winston Churchill, who enjoyed bricklaying as a hobby.
Mr Johnson met apprentices and posed for selfies at the site. One construction worker wore a vest with the message: ‘Love you Boris, got my vote.’
Other measures outlined by the party include helping renters buy homes with long-term, fixed-rate mortgages requiring only five per cent deposits, and a pledge to offer 30 per cent discounts for local first-time buyers.
Mr Johnson also said the Tories would introduce lifetime rental deposits so down-payments can be transferred from one property to the next, before the deposit from the first property is repaid.
Meanwhile, the party’s campaign coach was temporarily left stranded in Bedford yesterday with staffers and journalists on board because of a fault with the electric wing mirror.
Mr Johnson was not on board at the time – he had travelled by train earlier.
criticised Tory government cuts since 2010, and shadow home secretaries for staying ‘relatively silent’.
He said problems in the system ‘will not be solved by throwing more money only at what is supposed to be the most visible part of it, the police, without a plan’.