Bath and North East Somerset Green Party has called for B&NES Council and the Government to sign up to a new Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter to beat the housing crisis and ensure green spaces are protected.

On the new Charter, local party Councillor for Lambridge Joanna Wright, said:

“We need Councillors and national government to work together to deliver the homes people need and can afford to rent and buy, where people need them."

“What we need is local Councils supported to build quality, affordable housing in the right places where people live and work, with the right supporting infrastructure and local facilities."

“The Green Party’s Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will simultaneously protect valuable green space for communities, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable housing."

“Local communities in Bath and North East Somerset are facing the same problems as much of the rest of the country - developers being allowed to build houses local people often can’t afford and failing to ensure local services like buses and GP surgeries get the investment they need."

“Developers are being allowed to ride roughshod over the needs of communities and the environment and this has got to stop.”

The Charter would also provide greater protection for renters, as Green Party local election candidate Saskia Heijltjes explained:

“Residents here in Bath and North East Somerset are experiencing the same problems as people up and down the country - homes that are unaffordable to buy, unaffordable to rent and unaffordable to heat. There is a generation of people who are trapped in the private rental market by spiralling rents that bear no relationship to incomes."“To address this, in the short term, the Green Party would introduce an immediate rent freeze and eviction ban to prevent people being made homeless in the middle of this cost of living crisis, as the Scottish Greens have already done as part of the Scottish Government."

“In the longer term, the Green Party would give councils the power to bring in rent controls in areas where the housing market is overheated. We would also place much stricter controls on the type of new homes being built to include more affordable and social housing for buying and renting."

“Everyone deserves a place that they can call home. That is why the Green Party’s Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will deliver the change we want to see across the housing sector and create fairer, greener communities.”