I was out in Horsham’s Carfax again this afternoon with colleagues from Horsham Labour Party to try and persuade shoppers to sign our petition about affordable housing.Although Labour are not always well-received in Horsham (or at least rarely voted for) our continued campaign on affordable housing gets a lot of sympathy.  Of course a lot of people use the tried and tested eye-contact avoidance techniques they employ whenever somebody with a clipboard is in a public place, but nearly everybody who heard what we were doing was supportive.

You can see them trying to get away as we say “would you like to sign our petition…”, and then they just catch “..on affordable housing” and stop, deciding that they will hear a little more after all.

The specific reason for this petition is to present it to Horsham council when the planning application for a new development near Broadbridge Heath comes to the planning committee.

HDC’s agreed policy is for 40% of large developments to be given over to affordable housing – it is their justification for allowing smaller developments to have no affordable element.  So far, so good, but the first large development that comes along, they have decided to let the affordable element slip to just 20%.

There is always a lot of debate about exactly what ‘affordable’ means, but when the local paper reports that the average price of homes in Horsham district is 12 times the average salary, it is clear that a lot of the current housing is not affordable to a lot of the current residents so getting distracted by the exact definition is something we do not need.

The petition is being handed in soon, asking Horsham District Council to stick to their 40% policy on the Broadbridge Heath development.  If you have missed us in the Carfax or knocking on doors in Broadbridge Heath you can always e-mail me and ask for your name to be added.