A record number of young people are not in any form or education, employment or training (Neets), according to figures from the Conservatives. Nearly 860,000 people aged 16–24 were not in jobs, school or training, up from 629,000 in 2000. The Tories suggest that the recession, along with government cuts to sixth-form funding, apprenticeships and
Meanwhile, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) accused the Conservatives of failing to understand the rental market, after yesterday’s announcement of new Tory measures to protect tenants from repossession. A spokesperson from ARLA said that while they welcome additional support for tenants in these tough times, the proposal to bring forward the planned extension
The Conservatives have called for the eco-town programme to be scrapped saying that developers are running scared from the plans. Shadow housing minister Grant Schapps said the ‘small print’ of the draft legislation published last week reveal that plans for the eco-towns had now been pushed back to 2020, but John Healey said he would
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said that the recently launched Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has ‘probably a year, 18 months’ from now to prove it can deliver or it would be scrapped by a Conservative government. He said that he could see the ‘potential areas of waste’ in the HCA’s ‘super-quango’ bureaucracy. His comments
A freedom of information request by Andrew Slaughter, London MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush, has found presentations made by the Conservative leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council to senior Tory figures calling for limiting social housing to the old, infirm and disabled in a bid to solve the ‘concentration of deprivation’. Council leader
There was some confusion over the weekend as to the Conservatives pledge to abolish inheritance tax on estates worth less than £1 million, after shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke said the plan was only an ‘aspiration’. He has since issued a statement insisting it would happen in the first term of a Tory government, and
The Conservatives have warned that equality legislation could stop government plans to give local people greater priority for council housing. Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said the measures would be illegal and questioned if funding for the £1.5 billion cost of the programme would be diverted from the Decent Homes initiative, which aims to take