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Tory MP suggests house hunters out-priced in London should try Manchester (2 July 2014)

Date: 02/07/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Tory MP suggests house hunters out-priced in London should try Manchester

The Conservative MP for Croydon South, Sir Richard Ottaway, has suggested that those who are unable to afford to buy a home in London should get on a train and go to Manchester.

Sir Richard said that the alternative to high prices and a shortage of homes in London was to “boost the northern economies” and “shift people out of the capital”.

In an interview with BBC News, the Croydon South MP spoke of Chancellor George Osborne’s proposal for the north of England to become an economic hub in its own right. A high-speed rail link – HS3 –between Leeds and Manchester has already been mooted to help grow the economy in the north of the country.

Sir Richard said:

“Houses up there are quite reasonably priced and that is perhaps where we should be – what we should be doing is getting people on trains and up to Manchester.

Labour Shadow housing spokesperson Emma Reynolds MP called Sir Richard’s comments “outrageous”. Ms Reynolds told London newspaper the Evening Standard that encouraging people to move to Manchester from London would “split people from the communities they grew up in”.

Sir Richard said that his comments were meant to be “a thoughtful response to this economic situation” – and not a case for telling people to go to Manchester.

“Labour may not have noticed, but there is a housing crisis in London,” he said.

Last week, chair of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, Inspector Ian Hanson, said that alcohol-fuelled violence in Manchester City Centre at weekends was so widespread that police could no longer guarantee public safety.

Insp Hanson said many of those committing public order offences were being allowed to go free because police budget cuts meant officers had to decide whether to patrol the streets or make arrests, which would take them off patrols temporarily while they dealt with the offender and related paperwork at the police station.

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