Average Putney house price now half a million

If you needed further evidence that the main focus of Putney's MP should be housing, look no further than the latest figures from the Land Registry. They reveal that the average house price in the constituency is now £498,976.

Despite a slowing housing market in the rest of the country, in London, prices surged by 16%; making homes here twice as expensive as the rest of the UK. This again is why I'm arguing that London is a 'special case' - that we need more imaginative and far-reaching solutions to solve the Capital's problems.

Sadly, we're not getting them from the Conservatives - those that are vaguely interested in the problem, that is (a group that excludes our current MP who hasn't asked a single parliamentary question on the local housing situation since her election). The Tories would actually make the problem worse by accelerating council house sales without any plan to replace the rented homes lost. In effect, they're trying to saddle the rest of the country with the problem they've created in our borough: cash windfalls for the lucky few council tenants fortunate enough to buy their home; greatly reduced social and housing mobility for everyone else.

After a decade of Opposition, it should genuinely worry everyone that the only housing policy the Tories have come up with is a retread that's almost 30 years old - when Britain was a different country. Unless your income's rising by 16% a year then this problem affects you and the Tories couldn't care less.

Click here to visit my homewatch site and here for the www.putneysw15.com coverage of this story.