On Tuesday I was invited by Tony Power to visit Abbeyfield at 114 Bromley Road. I have been there a couple of times before and it was fun talking to residents – particularly Jim who was ex-Royal Navy - although I steered clear of electioneering! Thereafter I joined a group of friends for lunch in the Rascasse. In the afternoon I did a bit of local campaigning in Shortlands (photograph) and then the team canvassed around Oakley Drive in Keston ending up having supper in Shampan 2 on Chatterton Road, Bromley Common.
David Cameron has now launched the Conservative Manifesto and amongst other matters he announced that the rights of housing association tenants to buy their homes would be boosted if he was sent back to 10 Downing Street. In the whole country there are 1.3 million housing association tenants. Locally that means people living in housing association properties such as provided by Affinity Sutton and Riverside will have more chance to own their own home. In the 1980’s such a scheme under Margaret Thatcher had been very popular. Noticeably the subject came up several times as I walked and talked with people and seemed to go down well.
Personally I am very much in favour of allowing tenants to buy their own flats or houses. It is absolutely right for this to happen but at the same time new housing stock – to replace that taken off social-type housing – must be built. David Cameron has said that must and will happen.
I have always supported the idea of getting rid of inheritance tax. Why should someone who has worked to get a decent home not be able to hand it on to his or her family when they are gone? So the idea of stopping inheritance tax for estates below £1 million is good news. That will certainly help a lot of people in the Bromley area. We tried that one at the last election before I know - only to have it scuppered by the Liberal Democrats when we were forced into Coalition. I seriously hope we can avoid any such Coalition again – regardless of what the opinion polls tend to suggest.