Taking housing concerns to the top

On Tuesday I met with Housing Minister Caroline Flint MP at the House of Commons to take her through my plans to tackle Putney's housing crisis.

Housing is my number one priority; whereas the incumbent Conservative has yet to ask a single question or come up with a single idea to tackle the increasing shortfall in housing affordable to ordinary Putney people it will be my focus as MP for our constituency.

Here's my five point housing plan:

1. For every rented home the council sells off, they will be obliged by law to replace it with two new ones; and first refusal for every surplus piece of public sector land will go to affordable housing

2. Two thirds of all new homes in Wandsworth must be affordable - and by that I mean what most of us regard as affordable: not the absurd formula the Tory council uses which puts new "affordable" homes beyond the means of most Putney residents

3. The Stamp Duty threshold increased to £250,000 as a first step towards a higher threshold for Greater London; and much wider availability of long-term 10 or 15 year fixed rate mortgages.

4. HomeBuy schemes through which first-time buyers can get a grant of up to a third of the cost of a market home worth less than £300,000 repayable only when they choose to move-on, at whatever one third of the value of their property is at sale

5. More family houses - the Tory Council is obsessed with building ever more apartments and flats - especially one bedroom flats - when Putney is in desperate need of family accommodation

This is a common sense, affordable and urgently needed first step towards tackling our housing crisis. But this is a huge problem locally, because of which my plan goes further than the Government's Housing Act.

I'm taking the lead on housing, while the Conservatives have nothing new to say on this critical issue.