Grant Shapps: Why you should Vote Conservative today

Grant Shapps is Chairman of the Conservative Party and MP for Welwyn Hatfield

Today, thousands of people will go to the polls to vote in the local elections. It’s an important time for us and every vote will count.

We need to really get behind our councillors in this election. At town halls up and down the country they’re working hard – cutting waste and cutting council tax – one of the largest household bills after your rent or mortgage. We need to support this great work in local government. To do that, we need to show exactly what we’re achieving as Conservatives in central government - important things we’re doing to support people who want to work hard and get on, and things we can be proud of.

Grant Shapps MP: Over the next two years we're going to tell the British people about this Government's impressive achievements

Grant Shapps is Conservative Party Chairman. Follow Grant on Twitter.

Last Wednesday night, commuters travelling home from stations around the country were handed this leaflet.

On it were the most important things we've done this week to lighten the load for families, home buyers and hard workers across the country; details of our budget commitments from fuel to childcare.

We distributed these leaflets just hours after the Chancellor sat down. Because much as I'm sure Westminster politicians would like to believe it, not everyone sits down to watch the Budget from start to finish.

Actually, as the Budget is delivered, most people are away from the TV and busy at work. In the days that follow they'll start to pick up on a few details. Many more will have seen something on the Budget by now – perhaps on the evening news or a favourite news website. Today, more will read a fuller digest in their Sunday papers.

But we should never expect people to just go out and find this information. It's our job to tell them about the Budget. And there are still many more people to reach.

At Conservative Spring Forum last weekend, I tweeted a cue card that we handed out to attendees.

Grant Shapps: Eastleigh residents deserve an MP they can trust, who is on their side

Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps urges members to join him campaigning in Eastleigh

Never are voters more aware of the power they have than in the days leading up to an election. In Eastleigh, the TV crews have already descended and canvassers from all parties are hard at work.

I was there on Friday, with prospective Conservative MP Maria Hutchings. Eastleigh is a place Maria cares deeply about.  Here is a working mum of four, who’s not frightened of taking on politicians, including, memorably, Tony Blair – and she wants to win.

For Maria, this contest is about Eastleigh, not Westminster. It’s about what she has already achieved for the community she loves – and how much more she could achieve if she were elected to raise local concerns in parliament.

Of course there could be few more serious moments in which to enter national politics. Mid-terms are notoriously tricky for any government. As Conservatives tackle Labour's deficit, we’re making difficult decisions that have been put off for far too long. We know that we have our work cut out, but that the prize for Britain is immense.

Grant Shapps MP: Labour has taken £1 million from taxpayers for policy development. What have you done with it Mr Miliband?

Grant Shapps is Chairman of the Conservative Party. Follow him on Twitter.

In November 2010, Ed Miliband famously declared that he had a policy ‘blank page’. At the time, he was proud of it. No more poisonous policies of the past, a fresh start under his control.

Since then, the Labour party have taken over a million pounds of public money to fund policymaking.

Money for the development of policy to Her Majesty’s Opposition is no bad thing. In the absence of civil service support, it means the opposition can fund a great deal of policy work. I know we used it; by this time in opposition it was money well spent.

By this stage of the Conservative opposition in the last Parliament, Pauline Neville-Jones had recommended the creation of a UK Border Force, a policy subsequently implemented by Labour. Peter Lilley had set out how aid should be focused on promoting economic development, which is a cornerstone of our policy now. John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith had recommended a new wellbeing index, which reported for the first time this year. And John Redwood had proposed cutting corporation tax to 25% – something the Chancellor has already surpassed.

By this time in Tony Blair's leadership Labour had a whole raft of detailed policies, from a 'University of Industry' to minibus safety, as well as major economic and constitutional reforms.

But so far nothing has been forthcoming from Ed Miliband.

Nothing.

Grant Shapps: Our plans for the next election, including our 80 seat strategy and how you can help

Grant Shapps is the Chairman of the Conservative Party and Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield. Grant won his seat on his second attempt. In three elections he has turned a 5,595 Labour majority into a 17,423 Conservative majority. Follow Grant on Twitter.

With conference season behind us, I can now explain a little more about our plans for the 923 days - countdown clock still ticking - in the run up to the election.

Amongst the key strategies we announced in Birmingham was our plan for target seats. This weekend, we’ll be making some important decisions on those seats, and setting out the battlegrounds for the next election.

Grant Shapps MP: This year's party conference will be more focused on grassroots members

Grant Shapps is the new Conservative Party Chairman. He'll be writing a regular column for ConservativeHome. Follow him on Twitter.

This time next week, we’ll swap Westminster for the West Midlands. Conference is upon us, and as we enter the second half of the parliament we are increasingly focused on campaigning, mobilising and winning in 2015. Conference is about seeing those things in action.

I hear the criticisms of conference – too many lobbyists, too many journalists, not enough for members. People say it’s all about set pieces on the main stage. I think they’d be surprised if we did away with the Prime Minister’s speech, but I hear them.

Things are changing. There’s more engagement, more members sessions, more interaction. Great work started by my predecessor Sayeeda Warsi. Our focus on members has changed the game at conference. We’ve created more members-only events than we’ve seen for years:

• Six interactive mainstage sessions – proper debates bringing proper discussion to members.
• A new parliamentary area for MPs to meet with constituency activists in a more private setting.
• New guides to digital communication, which we’ll use to reach a new generation of voters. Going digital opens up an online world that can act as a campaign base, monitoring tool and ideas exchange. In short, it’s changing everything about the way we operate.
• The return of the Conservative Policy Forum, giving members the opportunity to debate policy with Cabinet Ministers.
• Meet the Chairmen – a closed forum where Andrew and myself will genuinely answer any question our members pose.
• The Road to 2015 session by CCHQ’s Director of Campaigning Stephen Gilbert.  After the success of the campaign sessions at Conference last year, Stephen his team are back to set out the milestones on the road to the next election.

Grant Shapps MP: Thousands of new homes unlocked with an historic deal that began by abolishing dozens of quangos

Grant Shapps is the Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. Follow Grant on Twitter.

Every quango under the sun had stuck their oar in. And I can tell you that this was a part of the world not short of a Quasi-Non-Governmental-Organisation. In fact they had sixty-two of them.

If encouraging the proliferation of quangos really could deliver large-scale housing development, then the whole of the Thames Gateway would have romped home years ago.

They were all at it…

From the Regional Development Agency (RDA) to the Government Office of the Region (GOR), via the Regional Assembly (RA), which, in turn, churned out their beloved Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). Each talked a good-game about house-building at Eastern Quarry in Kent. Yet after more than a decade, not a single home was actually built.

This 1,000 acres of abandoned chalk quarries represents an enormous brown-field site. Or perhaps that should be a white-field opportunity to chalk up nearly 23,000 homes over the next 20 years. Yet it remained firmly stuck on the blackboard for a generation – until today.

The deal now signed will create 60,000 jobs over the next 20 years with the first phase of the development at Ebbsfleet delivering 1,500 homes, with spades in the ground in the coming months. This is by any standards an historic housing deal.

Grant Shapps MP: Armed forces must be at the front of the housing queue

Grant Shapps is the Housing Minister

As a nation, we need to make sure that when our brave servicemen and women need a secure, decent home, we're ready to answer their call.

It's the least we can do for our military heroes, who risk their lives to keep our country safe. But we also owe a debt of gratitude to the families that support them when they serve - and who, all too often, grieve for them when they're lost in action

In the past, their call for help has gone unanswered. The nature of military jobs - moving from base to base, serving abroad - has meant our heroes have been pushed to the bottom of the list for housing help as they couldn't prove they were from the area they wanted to live in.

Clearly, this is unacceptable. That's why I'm changing the law, so that members of the armed forces and their families are at the front of the queue for social housing when they need it most. And I'm making sure that members of the Reserve Forces, who dedicate their spare time to their country, also get the housing help they need when they're injured in action.

Grant Shapps: The vital phase III of this Government is now underway --- turning legislation into action

Grant Shapps is Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. Follow Grant on Twitter. The Daily Telegraph referred to an article by Grant yesterday, which is now available to read for the first time here on ConservativeHome.

“So how come Boris won in London?” persisted the interviewer, arm outstretched with a microphone.

“Well, he’s been a great Mayor and he’s put London first”, I offered.

Interview over, I walked away. But then I stopped in my tracks. 

What I should have mentioned was that Boris had the massive advantage of a full-term in office to implement his great ideas. And getting a full-term is more important than you might think because governing comes in three distinct stages.

First you’ve got to tell people what you intend to do.  Second, you have to legislate to make it happen. Third you need to follow through to turn all those new rules and laws into real life outcomes. Only then can the electorate truly judge how your pledges stacked up against reality.

Right now this Government is exactly two years down the line. Step one was the Coalition Agreement where our pledges were mapped out. Step two were the 30 pieces of legislation passed during the session. But the most important phase is yet to come – turning that legislation into action. And that requires time and determination.

Grant Shapps MP: Britain is at the bottom of the league for self-built homes. That must change.

Grant Shapps is Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. Follow Grant on Twitter.

Today I’m on a trade mission to Almere in Holland. This visit is all to do with a rather startling fact.

Now I wouldn’t normally begin an article with a bar chart, but this one is so stark I feel compelled to bring it to your immediate attention.

So there it is. The UK has the lowest level of self-built homes of any developed nation.

Now I first came across this graph five years ago in Opposition and I have to say I was shocked for two reasons:

• First, everyone knows that an Englishman or woman’s home is supposed to be his or her castle. It is therefore surprising to discover that we haven’t been playing a bigger role in shaping the way our homes look over the years.
• Second, given that housing is so expensive in the UK, wouldn’t you assume that self-build would be all the more popular here?  Whilst the average price of a house is £232,000, a self-built home is £150,000 average, including the land.

Yet Self-build still delivers more homes than anyone else

Here’s another fact that completes the picture above. Last year around 14,000 self-build homes were completed. So despite our international rock-bottom comparison, UK self-builders are still responsible for more new houses than any single volume builder in the country.

Doubling up on self-build

When we came into office I suggested that we should focus on doubling the self-build sector in the future.  To this end I commissioned the National Self Build Association to produce a report into the barriers, which they delivered in July 2011 (PDF). This report identified four key issues.

Grant Shapps MP: Extending the Right to Buy is a great campaigning message this May

Grant Shapps is Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. Follow Grant on Twitter.

One of the most iconic Conservative policies of the 1980s was the introduction of the Right to Buy for council tenants. This key pledge in Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 election manifesto was then actively implemented by Michael Heseltine as Secretary of State for the Environment, reflecting its wide support across the Party.

Following the Housing Act 1980, nearly 2 million social homes have been bought by their tenants under Right to Buy, increasing home ownership, improving social mobility and building mixed communities. It allowed decent, hard-working people on lower incomes a helping hand into owner-occupation, enabling households to own their home who would never otherwise have been able to do so.

The Right to Buy gave something back to families who worked, paid their rent and played by the rules. It allowed them to do up their home, change their front door, improve their garden – without getting permission from clipboard-wielding bureaucrats down the town hall.

Any party activist who delivers leaflets and knocks on doors can literally see its beneficial effect. Those new front doors signalled new life and diversity in housing estates, giving people a sense of pride and ownership not just in their home, but in their whole street and neighbourhood. Once monolithic and mono-tenure estates benefited from that increased sense of shared ownership and social responsibility.

Grant Shapps MP: Housebuilding can drive Britain's economic recovery

Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP is Minister of State for Housing & Local Government. Follow Grant on Twitter.

At this time of year it’s almost traditional to speculate on which levers the Chancellor should grab, push or pull in order to keep our economy on track.

But you don’t need to enter that debate to understand that our economy just wasn’t robust enough when the credit crunch hit. And that’s why this Prime Minister has focussed on rebalancing the economy. Yes we should have a first class Service Sector and remain the world’s financial centre, but none of that is incompatible with manufacturing things once again.

Of course the problem with making stuff is that you have to find a consumer.  Even the shining example of Chinese growth has been tarnished this month with disappointing, by their standards, expansion.  Indeed the Government in Beijing has called for the development of an internal Chinese market as a consumer base.  An acknowledgement that if you make things, but have few consumers, then there is a limit to your growth potential.

Grant Shapps MP: Home Information Packs are history

Grant Shapps MP is Housing Minister. He is pictured yesterday with Eric Pickles MP cutting the red tape of HIPs.

Since first sitting at my ministerial desk last week the time has flown by – moving in, meeting my staff, being briefed in dozens of meetings, it has all added up to a hectic few days. Yet, throughout the busy hours what has never been in doubt is the need to push through our reforms, to meet our promises, to make decisions – in short, to get things done.

Yesterday was the first step. We have suspended Home Information Packs. Just as we promised, and within a week, they are history.

HIPs were doomed from the start. They added needless red tape to a housing market which, by the time they were introduced, was struggling. The £400 cost of a pack was a disincentive to putting a house up for sale and I had a torrent of unhappy letters and emails from buyers, sellers and the industry. More than that, having been in business, I have an inherent dislike of restrictive and oppressive red tape that strangles markets. Scrapping them was always a no-brainer and will reduce the cost of selling a home, remove a layer of regulation from the process and provide a welcome help to the housing market during the recovery. It will also mean a saving for consumers to the tune of £1bn over ten years, giving sellers more money in their pocket to spend and help a wider economic recovery.

Grant Shapps: How progressive Conservatism combines individual responsibility with a big belief in society

Grant Shapps is the Shadow Housing Minister and seeking re-election in Welwyn Hatfield.

I'm not very good at DIY but one Saturday, frustrated by the mess in our utility room, I set off for HomeBase and picked up two shelves and a packet of screws. Several hours later I had fixed the planks of wood to my wall and, somewhat to my surprise, that’s where they remain to this day.

Now whenever I walk into our utility room I experience a tiny tinge of pleasure. Not only is the room tidier than in its pre-shelf days -- but I’m somehow slightly more connected to that room.

Of course there's nothing particularly unique about my experience. If you have ever painted a wall, done a spot of gardening or baked a cake, then you will have experienced the same small pleasure.

And strange as this might sound, I believe my utility-room-shelves say a great deal about what makes us humans tick.  We all take more pride in our surroundings once we’ve invested our own personal capital, and this straightforward connection provides a glimpse of how localism can help to transform society.

Let me illustrate the point…

Grant Shapps is the Shadow Housing Minister and seeking re-election in Welwyn Hatfield.

I'm not very good at DIY but one Saturday, frustrated by the mess in our utility room, I set off for HomeBase and picked up two shelves and a packet of screws. Several hours later I had fixed the planks of wood to my wall and, somewhat to my surprise, that’s where they remain to this day.

Now whenever I walk into our utility room I experience a tiny tinge of pleasure. Not only is the room tidier than in its pre-shelf days -- but I’m somehow slightly more connected to that room.

Of course there's nothing particularly unique about my experience. If you have ever painted a wall, done a spot of gardening or baked a cake, then you will have experienced the same small pleasure.

And strange as this might sound, I believe my utility-room-shelves say a great deal about what makes us humans tick.  We all take more pride in our surroundings once we’ve invested our own personal capital, and this straightforward connection provides a glimpse of how localism can help to transform society.

Let me illustrate the point…

Grant Shapps: How to track this general election in real-time using Twitter

Grant Shapps is the most followed Conservative MP on Twitter, having tweeted most days since March 2008 @grantshapps

On March 28th 1992 the then Prime Minister John Major hit the campaign trail in Luton.

Walking through a pedestrianised shopping centre he was jostled by a hostile left-wing crowd. Progress was slow until he spotted a soapbox and he decided to clamber on board. Grabbing a megaphone he retorted:

"No mob ever taking to the streets is going to stop us coming out and talking to the ordinary decent people of this country.”

That was a moment I particularly remember thanks to a completely new innovation in British TV. Three years earlier Sky had launched its News channel and this was the first general election to be covered around the clock. From then on the 24-hour news channels have been on hand to instantly capture moments of impromptu voter interaction; like the time when John Prescott throw a punch on an abusive voter in 2001.

Wind forward to the 2005 election and the speed of election coverage had taken yet another leap forward.

Blogs were all the rage and with commentary no longer restricted to the newspapers, every twist and turn in the 2005 campaign was reported online. Finding out what the commentariat thought of the campaign was no longer a question of waiting for the morning papers to report on an event from the day before. Now blogs became hourly accounts of the day's key election events.

And in this 2010 general election, technology has once again powered ahead. For better or worse, this is Britain's first ever twitter election.