The availability of appropriate housing is very important. Do you remember the great Thatcherite experiment of selling off council housing stock cheaply? After which the Conservative government refused to let councils build any replacement housing. Instead, they grabbed all the money and used it for tax cuts, which were of greatest benefit to those with the largest incomes (of course). This policy worked very well for some, because it allowed the Conservatives to win the next general election. But it did nothing at all for the poorest in society, who had no cheap council housing left available for them.
The good news here is that Lib Dem-run Teignbridge has found a way to start building council houses again – not many as yet – but it looks set for the future. This policy has proved so successful and so popular that apparently the Conservatives in Mid-Devon have decided to adopt this as their policy as well. It just goes to show…. (Note: the Conservatives in Mid Devon recently lost a Parliamentary seat in a byelection to the Lib Dems. They obviously got the message…)

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