I understand and share the concerns of voters locally about pressing issues, such as shortages of affordable housing, shortages of school places and lengthening queues for NHS healthcare.
However, are these issues really caused by our membership of the EU or perhaps something else?
Let’s take a quick look, for instance, at the current housing crisis, which has resulted from the UK consistently failing to build sufficient housing, especially social and affordable housing, for generations. Indeed, successive governments have singularly failed to deliver against their explicit election promises to solve this problem.
So, should we be blaming our increasing housing crisis on membership of the EU or on successive UK governments?
Currently, the best estimate of the total costs to our economy of the housing crisis is £21.5billion annually (source: House of Commons’ Council House Group), most of which could be saved by building more housing.
Add to this a net profit of over £2.5billion annually produced by migrant workers from the EU (not including net profit produced by migrant workers from Commonwealth countries and elsewhere) and we’re looking at a total figure of up to £24billion annually to spend on building more social and affordable housing.
This work would, in turn, stimulate our construction industry, create lots of jobs and generate significant tax revenues for our economy.
In contrast, does anyone seriously believe our ongoing housing crisis can somehow be resolved by restricting the numbers of workers coming from the EU or by more forceful implementation of a Bedroom Tax?
Frankly, the finger of blame for our current housing crisis points, not at Brussels, but at Westminster – as, indeed, it does for all the other day-to-day issues currently affecting us.
So, let’s vote to stay in the EU, in order to capture the benefits of EU membership, and start campaigning to reform politics at Westminster.
Alan Meekings
Holbeach
