Our Conservative Amendment to D2 adds” including the need for family homes in the city. 
 
We have seen over many years Labours failure to build homes, even going back to the Labour 2015 Manifesto when the then leader announced a joint venture to build a thousand homes. Now in 2020, Labour has still to deliver on that promise.  
 
What we are seeing across the city is more and more developments of 1 and 2 bed properties, plus student accommodation, including the councils own new build. This is not addressing the real need for family homes. 
 
The Cities economy relies of having enough people working in all aspects across the city. 
 
We have a range of key workers who perform many different and varied jobs such as doctors, nurses, teachers, Etc. but also included other key workers such as those working in the tourism industry, council staff delivering essential council services, police, bus drivers, care workers plus many others. Together they all contribute to the functioning and the wellbeing of the city. 
 
But what we are seeing is that more and more families are having to move out of the city due to the lack of family homes.  As a council we need to be seriously looking at this imbalance in developments not only to provide family homes for these that need them, which in turn helps to protect the city economy, but also the social side with families staying in the city, so able to stay closer to older family relatives, and their children being able to attend local primary schools who’s numbers we know are falling.     
 
On our Amendment D3 we are proposing to replace 115sqm which is equivalent to one small home by increasing to 120sqm so that we can protect more houses from conversion. The Plan proposes protecting houses of up to 115sqm in area. We are proposing protecting even more houses so have used a figure of 120sqm. This would ensure that many more two-storey houses around the city don’t get converted into flats. 
 
 
As Conservatives we believe our amendments will enhance the City Plan leading to a better quality of life of our residents.