Put your questions to Grant Shapps

Colin

What advice do you have for the individuals who are now deep in debt, after a decade long credit bubble; especially now that the safety net of massive house price rises is not there to save them?

Lance Grundy

Is it right that the British people are forced to pay a £140 per year tax to watch TV - a tax that takes money from the pockets of the working poor and gives it to millionaire BBC presenters such as Jonathon Ross?

Hysteria

Grant - vision do you have for housing in the UK over the next 10-20 years....?

Coeur de Lion

Do you think it is right to rig the conditions and provide subsidies to encourage poor risk people to buy into a falling house price market? How can Brown/Darling 'force' banks to lend in such a situation? Even if the bank is not 'nationalised', it's surely a guaranteed loss for the taxpayer? Has the taxpayer been asked whether he wants to support further dodgy loans? Do lets get real!!

Polly and Alice's mum

Can we rely on you guys to give us the promised referendum on the Lison treaty?
It seems to me that you promise the world but have no intention of delivering.

teledu

Do you support a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, even if by the time the Conservatives come to power, it has already been ratified?
Or don't you trust the people?

David Preiser

The people who are losing their homes due to mortgage problems can no longer afford to be home owners in the current climate, so would need to find "affordable housing". Would you authorize and fund the construction of new, "affordable housing" units to provide accommodation for these people? And what about all those who now have no chance of buying a home in the current credit climate?

wonderfulforhisage

Is it your choice to pose without a tie or are you under orders?

Time will Tell

Why should council house tenants in Waverley (Surrey) hand over 48% of
this year's Housing Revenue Account to the Treasury - £10.8m out of £22m - and as a result cannot possibly meet the Decent Homes Standards by 2010 as required by government.
In the 2009/10 financial year, the tax on tenants rises to 51% and subsequently to 54%.
Selling a council house does lttle to help as 75% of the proceeds go to central government -aka Labour heartlands. Hackney received a £44m subsidy this year - that Waverley has three areas of severe deprivation apparently counts for nothing.
Much more social housing is a with huge priority with 3000 people on the waiting list but only c300 properties becoming available each year out of total stock of 5000 units.

It is very important that the Conservatives can give a reasoned response to a huge national problem which will inevitably get much worse.

Please - no platitudes as this crisis transcends party politics.

James

What is the Tory's policy on [ ]? Please feel free to add anything you wish into the box. It'd be refreshing to hear at least one actual policy.

Frank P

Why is it that you look more like an estate agent than an MP?

GS London

Sir, as a student of Architecture, I wonder whether you are in favour of increased architectural consultancy and quality of design for public housing?

Architects are a wooly left-wing bunch, intent on supporting a government which apparently ignores them - the consequence being poor quality housing. What do you intend to do about this?

Tim Hedges

Why do we need a Minister (and therefore Shadow Minister) for housing?

Paul Lettan

Will the Conservatives release the £250 million plus owed to Camden Council for much needed essential repairs and currently withheld by the Labour government because the people of Camden voted down housing stock transfer?

sick of 12year olds

How old are you, and have you ever done a real job of work ie outside politics/media/PR. If so how long for.

Tikabila

Do you not agree that it is about time that the Governent stop harping on about what happened in the 1980's and early 90's and told us what is happening here and now. I, like many othere are only interested in what is going to happen today and tomorrow, not yesterday

Rex Burr

How would you, 'Get the housing market moving again' and prevent the formation of another destructive bubble?
The market is not a suitable system for housing because the supply is not free to respond to demand.

Lance Grundy

As the arrest of Damian Green shows, the British establishment is stuffed to the rafters with left-wing placemen sympathetic to the Labour Party and hostile to the Tories.

What plans does the Conservative Party have to depoliticise Britain’s civil institutions, purge them of left-wing bias and restore political neutrality?

Maggie

Do you think about HIPS?

Mark Stockwell

Grant

You have been admirably candid about the need to build more houses to tackle the housing crisis and to smooth the boom bust cycle in the market. How do you propose to overcome opposition to this from environmental campaigners, including many in your own party?

rugfish

Is there any problem shifting liability for Stamp Duty to the seller, increasing it to 5% and bringing MIRAS back in to get the market working again ?

The way I see it this would pay for itself.

George Laird

Dear Mr.Shapps

The Tories introduced right to buy which I believe was policy of the SNP before your lot ran with it.

Councils are afraid to build new homes, so why not amend right to buy so that new build cannot be bought until 100 years has passed?

These are difficult times and this may help Councils address the social housing problem without being afraid.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Eva Silver

FAILING HOUSING ASSOCIATION
We have a failing Housing Association and has Tenants/Resident we have no one to turn to I have spoke to Peter Marsh of the TSA because for years Housing Corporation believe what the Housing Assocation tell them you remember other than the Housing Ombudsman whom again believe first the Housing Association before the Tenant/Resident the people had no one to investigated these failing Housing Association if only you knew about how many of these Housing Association are failing Tenants/Resident