Northern regeneration to continue, insist Tories - buy to let mortgages

14 August 2008

In news that may interest those keen to take on buy-to-let mortgages in the north of England, the Conservatives have reaffirmed that a change of government at the next election will not mean the end of efforts to regenerate northern towns and cities.

The party asserted this position after a report by right-wing thinktank the Policy Exchange argued that such policies have failed in cities such as Sunderland, Liverpool and Bradford.

Instead, the London-based authors stated, the government should relax planning controls to expand London, Oxford and Cambridge, with northerners then relocating en masse to such locations to take advantage of better economic prospects.

Such ideas were condemned by Conservative party leader David Cameron as "barmy".

The report was also attacked by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which argued that the additional building would add to the loss of countryside, congestion and strain on water and sewerage supplies in the south-east.