Saw another empty shop on Freeman Street the other day, chuck. Just boarded up, collecting dust. Meanwhile, young families are being priced out of Grimsby, crammed into tiny flats with rents higher than Dave’s old mortgage. It’s a joke, love. We keep hearing about regeneration and investment, but where is it? It’s all well and good having shiny new offices for people who probably live miles away, but what about the rest of us who actually live and work here?
My proposal is simple: a "Homes First" policy for town centre regeneration. Any new development or refurbishment in our high street areas has to include a significant percentage of genuinely affordable housing. I don't mean those tiny "starter homes" that cost a fortune and are still too small for a family, I mean proper, two or three-bedroom places that local people can actually afford to rent or buy.
Discussion (9)
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Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →
Look at what happened with that affordable housing scheme near Leeds a few years back. They mandated a huge chunk, and the whole project stalled for years because no one could make it financially viable. We'll end up with fewer homes overall, not more.
They'll build where the profit is. If making space for affordable homes eats too much into their margins, they'll simply pull out or build somewhere else. We've seen it happen with other mandates.