In any community there is always a lot of talk about housing. That’s hardly a surprise, secure shelter is one of the basics of social policy in any society, especially in the ‘developed’ parts of the planet. If you haven’t got enough houses for all those people who need one, you have a crisis where people sleep on the streets, or surf on sofas in friends and relatives houses, or live in and out of emergency shelters. This happens to a greater or lesser extent in all societies. There is a part of every community that cannot for various reasons acquire a suitable secure home. The major discussion points are how those situations come about and what to do about them. 

That last sentence is 16 words long but it refers to countless billions of words, written over the course of the centuries about how to fix the particular problem of some people being different to other people, but all people needing about the same basic things to live tolerably well, one of which is secure shelter.

Hang on though, surely (I hear you say…) this is way off the scale of why we should stop building new houses east of the Sidmouth Road in Ottery St Mary. That’s a good point – the first argument mounted in support of any plan to build more houses is that ‘people need houses’. But that’s not at issue – of course people need houses – the question is which people and where do they need them. Once you’ve sorted that out, you work out how many houses are needed and where to put them. Put all that into a Plan that we all agree on, then get busy to fulfil the terms in the Plan.

And that, basically, would be job done. Hooray – everyone comfortably housed in a suitable environment. 

Not that simple though is it…?. Nothing ever is these days. This blog will help you journey along with us through the trials and tribulations of current housing and planning policy, local planning in action, sustainable development, the issues with 22/1973/MOUT (that’s the planning application that’s causing the trouble at the moment) and the rest. If you have Ottery’s future prosperity at heart, then get on board with those of us who want it to thrive and prosper.