East Devon voters in Honiton and Sidmouth heading for the polls in the next General Election will find two familiar names in the showdown to become the new constituency’s Member of Parliament.

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Two of Devon’s MPs will go head-to-head for the same seat at the next general election, writes local democracy reporter Ollie Heptinstall

Due to a shake-up of constituencies, Tiverton & Honiton MP Richard Foord has announced he’ll be standing for the new Honiton & Sidmouth seat when we next go to the polls.

It means the Liberal Democrat will be taking on his Conservative neighbour Simon Jupp, the current East Devon MP, who was selected to stand for Honiton & Sidmouth by party members in February.

Simon Jupp, left and Richard Foord will go head-to-head for the same seat at the next General Election.

The Boundary Commission recently published its final recommendations for a shake-up of England’s map for general elections, which aims to give each MP roughly the same number of voters.

The changes will give Devon 13 MPs – up one on the existing 12 – although one will be split across Devon and Somerset in a new ‘Tiverton and Minehead’ constituency, which replaces part of the current Tiverton & Honiton seat.

East Devon’s current constituency is also being scrapped. There will instead be new ‘Honiton & Sidmouth’ and ‘Exmouth & East Exeter’ seats.

Mr Foord was first elected to parliament last summer, overturning a Tory majority of 23,000 in a by-election weeks before Boris Johnson was ousted from office, and after a scandal in which the former Conservative MP Neil Parish resigned.

Mr Jupp was part of the 2019 intake of new Conservative MPs who won a large majority at Westminster.

Announcing his candidacy, Mr Foord said: “I believe that everyone deserves a strong local champion, acting as their voice in parliament. This is what I like to think I have been over the past year and want to continue being – because there is so much that needs fixing.

“In spite of the brilliant people who work in the NHS locally, too many people are stuck on a long waiting list, can’t access dental treatment, or face hours of waiting for an ambulance to arrive. We’ve also seen our community hospitals hollowed out, losing beds that could be helping get people out of the RD&E.

“I have been listening to what experts and local people say will help address this. That’s why I’ve been calling for a Community Hospital Fund, have pushed for NHS dental contract reform, and lobbied for more support to cut waiting times in rural areas like ours.”

He added: “I will continue to work every day for everyone in Tiverton and Honiton, while also being a voice for people in parts of east Devon who also feel they’re being let down and taken for granted by this out of touch Conservative government.”

Reacting to Mr Foord also standing for the seat, Mr Jupp said he was “proud to be a candidate standing in Honiton  and Sidmouth who is lucky enough to live in the new constituency,” adding: “I have a proven track record of delivering action, not just words.”

He said: “Since I was elected in 2019, I have successfully secured a new school to replace Tipton St John Primary, £15.7 million from the levelling-up fund, a new police station for Exmouth and the planned reopening of Honiton’s police enquiry desk, and a confirmed banking hub for Sidmouth.

“Following my recent debate in parliament on South West Water’s poor performance, over £35 million of investment was announced for Sidmouth, Tipton St John and Axminster to clean up our rivers and coastline.”

Mr Jupp says he has “continued to meet residents in our towns and villages over the last few months and I won’t be taking any vote for granted.”

In February, Mr Jupp said he was “delighted” to be selected for the new constituency, explaining: “As a resident of Sidmouth, home is where the heart is and I’m standing where I’m incredibly proud to live.

“Since I was elected in 2019, I have successfully secured a new school to replace Tipton St John Primary, £15.7 million from the levelling-up fund, a new police station for Exmouth, and multi-million-pound support for Exeter Airport during the pandemic.

“I have a proven track record and will continue to work hard for everyone I represent in East Devon.”

Multiple complaints have been made to the council that rewilded areas in East Devon pose a crash risk to motorists and have stopped kids from playing.

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Children in East Devon are finding it hard to play football because the local council is letting long grass grow in favourite play areas, writes local democracy reporter Guy Henderson.

And overgrown roadside verges are creating an accident hazard, it’s been claimed.

East Devon District Council (EDDC) is one of many councils nationwide to ‘rewild’ some open spaces, allowing grass and wild flowers to take over. Letting the grass grow is good for the environment, and encourages birds and insects. It also help council budgets, cutting cash spent on maintenance.

But last week, members of East Devon’s overview committee heard calls for a new policy following complaints from local residents.

Committee chair Cllr Anne Hall ( Lib Dem, Exmouth Littleham) led calls to create ‘a more balanced approach’ and give the right impression to residents and tourists.

It should be in place in time for the spring growing season in 2024, she said. Numerous complaints had been received about children’s play areas where children normally play football, but now can’t due to long grass.

She is concerned that there is not enough management of the ‘no-mow’ policy.

“These places need to be managed so there is a reason for it rather than just leaving it long,” she said. “So you haven’t just got everything growing five feet tall and looking untidy.

“It needs to be managed rather than just being left. I’m all for biodiversity, but it needs to be done correctly.”

Cllr Ian Barlow (Independent, Sidmouth Town) added: “People say it’s just the council being lazy and just giving up, but that’s not the case. We need to look at this very carefully.”

And Cllr John Heath (Independent, Beer and Branscombe) said grass cutting around road junctions and cycle paths should be managed better, and that Devon County Council’s highways department should be lobbied to deal with long grass verges better.

He went on: “I am getting a number of complaints that when people are coming to junctions, they can’t see around them.

Cllr Hall said health and safety should be paramount, and there had recently been a crash at Honiton caused by an overgrown verge.

The Bishop of Exeter will use his final speech in the House of Lords to tell the government to pull its socks up and sort out the housing crisis in rural and coastal areas.

Radio Exe News www.radioexe.co.uk

The Rt. Rev’d Robert Atwell is retiring in September after nine years as Bishop of Exeter and two years in the House of Lords.

Today [Monday] he will address parliament’s upper house during a debate on Monday afternoon, where he will accuse the government of falling “woefully short” of its own affordable housing targets.

He will also list second homes and Airbnb properties as among the reasons for the lack of housing for people on low incomes.

According to recent research by Middlemarch Team Devon, the amount of rental properties listed as available in the county has fallen below 700.

Devon County Council data shows that, at the current rate, it will take 32 years to clear the backlog of people waiting for social housing. 

Bishop Robert wants the government to get its act together. He also says the Church has a “significant part to play,” as highlighted in the Coming Home report by the Archbishop’s Commission on Housing. 

He will say “Without partnership and systemic change, the spiral of deprivation will become more acute. We need cross-departmental working and cross-party agreement to forge a coherent long-term strategy that will secure good housing and the flourishing of our rural and coastal communities.”

Michael Gove has announced a £24m package including ‘super squads’ and relaxing planning rules, including developing more brownfield and retail units to deliver new homes

Harriet Clough www.pbctoday.co.uk 

The plan to relax planning rules follows the Government’s assertion that they will meet the target of building one million homes between 2019-24, despite a recent report from the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee stating that the government would not deliver 300,000 net new homes per year by the mid-2020s.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak reiterated over the weekend that the government would deliver the much-needed housing and housing secretary Micahel Gove added to this in his speech on Monday(24 July 2023), where he outlined the scheme.

Relaxing planning rules is intended to speed up the housebuilding process

In a statement released ahead of his speech, the Housing Secretary said: “Most people agree that we need to build more homes — the question is how we go about it.”

Citing regeneration in east London in the 1980s by the Docklands Development Corporation, the housing secretary said his plans would kick-start a “21st century renaissance for our great cities”.

The proposals included:

• a £24m training fund to develop skills needed to increase housebuilding
• a renewed effort on developing and building homes in cities rather than “concreting over the countryside”; with an increased focus on brownfield
• creating an Office for Place, which would aim to ensure new homes are delivered to both high aesthetic and functional quality
• Reviewing and relaxing planning rules such as permitted development rights, which would allow retail units, takeaways and betting shops to be converted into housing without needing planning permission

Questions have been raised about the standard of conversions

Councillor Shaun Davies, chairman of the LGA, said: “Premises such as offices, barns and shops are not always suitable for housing.

“Further expanding permitted development rights risks creating poor quality residential environments that negatively impact people’s health and wellbeing, as well as a lack of affordable housing or suitable infrastructure.

“It is disappointing that the Government have ignored their own commissioned research that concluded that homes converted through a planning application process deliver higher quality homes than those converted via permitted development rights.”

The first of these projects, a new “urban quarter” in Cambridge, has already met with criticism

Gove also announced that he was appointing Peter Freeman, chair of Homes England, to lead a “Cambridge delivery group”, aiming to build on the strong research and innovation market in the area by providing housing for more professionals.

But local responses have ranged from angry to vehemently angry.

Cambridgeshire County Council leader, Cllr Lucy Nethsingha said she was “deeply angry and frustrated”, and Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire Anthony Browne condemned the plans in light of the fact that natural resources in Cambridge were already overstretched.

He later described the plans as “dead on arrival”.

The opposition decried the announcement as more ‘empty promises’

Referring to the new speech and recent news that housing targets were rolled back to be advisory rather than mandatory, Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow housing secretary, said: “It takes some serious brass neck for the Tories to make yet more promises when the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse on their watch, and when housebuilding is on course to hit its lowest rate since the Second World War because Rishi Sunak rolled over to his own MPs.

“We don’t need more reviews, press releases or empty promises, we need bold action to get Britain building.”

Industry responses were slightly more optimistic- but clear that there is still a long way to go

Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said they would “make a significant contribution to alleviating the pressure placed on England’s planning services.”
The CEOs and chief executives of Mace, Kier and Persimmon all welcomed the proposed reforms of planning to decrease delays, and Verity Davidge of Make UK Modular said:

“Today’s announcement to manage the housing planning backlog through a planning skills delivery fund is a step in the right direction. Part of the fund should be dedicated towards ensuring planners have the knowledge and expertise of modular housebuilding too, which can help tackle the housing crisis we face in the UK.

“That said, these policies only begin to scratch the surface and we need to see more ambitious reforms to housing. Lowering stamp duty for EPC A rated homes and allocating a higher proportion of the affordable housing programme to modular housing would unleash the potential of a dynamic and innovative sector able to provide homes greener, faster and better.”