LibDem policy calls for the construction of 300,000 houses each year for the next 10 years.  Brilliant because that should solve the housing shortage.  Make no mistake, we have a significant housing shortage.  Perhaps we should ask why there is such a shortage, I mean 3 million more houses is an awful lot of houses and is more than 10% of the existing housing stock. There are seemingly 700,000 empty properties in the UK, so perhaps we should be seeking to bring these back into use somehow.

The size of households matters hugely as about 29% of households are now single person households.  In Cambridgeshire, the average household is now 2.16 people, and if this is applies UK wide, then we need around 29.5m houses.  This compares with a current stock of 26.4m, so the target 3m is not too far out.  Of course, that does suggest that one way of reducing the housing shortage is by increasing average household size.

We should look at all these different ways of handling the housing crisis, because the building of new houses is not necessarily a good idea.  The problems with the housing crisis in London is resulting in people moving into Cambridgeshire causing a housing crisis in Cambridgeshire which is now hitting the north of the county.

That means that in Ely we are facing the prospect of 3,400 houses being built over the next few years and that puts incredible pressure on a very small city – in fact, the housing stock in Ely in 2001 was just 3,440, which is the number they are planning to build!  Of course, the housing stock rose to 8,920 in 2012.  But what has not grown is the infrastructure to cope with the city reaching 2 ½ times it’s 2001 size and now we are faced with a further 100% growth!

This is the problem with simply building more houses.  We need to find the land – in Ely it is prime farm land that is vanishing forever.  Then we need the jobs to support this population, but as I said before, many of these are commuters who cannot afford to live in Cambridge or London.  That then means that we need both public transport and roads for them to get to those jobs.  It is not just to meet the future growth, but the historic growth has not seen the improvements to the infrastructure.

Growth isn’t necessarily a bad thing – perhaps we can persuade some of the big name shops into the City?  Persuade people to spend the money they earn from their remote jobs in Ely, creating more jobs, that would be an ideal situation.

But we need the transport, we need to medical services, we need to education services, we need employment, we need everything to make this a top quality city.  We also need to provide entertainment, particularly for the younger people of the City, we need to make sure that every single person feels proud to be a part of this City.

Except our Conservative controlled District council does not see it in the same light.  They seem over focused on a 1.2 mile stretch of road, instead of all the roads and all the connections in the City and the main road connecting Kings Lynn to Cambridge – the A10, which is little more than a B road.  A fairly minor accident today brought the entire road to a close in both directions.  The trains are already overcrowded, and future plans only include increasing off-peak services.

Two doctors practices, but one is not accepting new patients and the other cannot get enough doctors.  Dentists cannot take on any more patients and waiting lists run into months.  New schools are being planned, but they are already needed to cope with the existing population, let alone the growth.

The cost of new roads, paths, cycle ways, new schools and community facilities, public transport and so on and all of these things cost money.  Money that wasn’t acquired, or wasn’t used for the real intended purposes, from previous developers means that we the costs now are significantly more than the developers are prepared to fund.

But let’s not forget those in need of affordable housing.  The Conservative Council have admitted that they need 30% of all new housing to be affordable to meet the current need and the future anticipated need, yet they consistently fail to make developers meet that obligation.

This Conservative administration have failed the people of Ely, failed to meet the needs of the current population and are in danger of growing the City even further with no hope of ever funding the improvement needs.

There is a simple truth to be faced: developments should not go ahead until such time as they are able to fund the community infrastructure needs.  Three million homes creating the same problems across the entire country.  Three million homes, but with the necessary infrastructure.  Let’s not make the same mistakes the Conservatives have made in East Cambridgeshire.