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I'LL GET OUR MOJO BACK
Jeremy Hunt reveals he’ll build 1.5million cheap homes to win back young from Jeremy Corbyn
JEREMY Hunt today champions his new plan to build 1.5million extra homes for the young in a manifesto for Sun readers.
He insists that “giving a whole generation a leg up on to the housing ladder” is the best way to keep Jeremy Corbyn from power.
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The masterplan, dubbed Right To Own, is his answer to Tory leadership rival Boris Johnson, who shared his vision for Brits here yesterday.
It is based on denying greedy property developers vast profits from hoovering up cheap land.
Mr Hunt would change the law to let councils and watchdog Homes England buy up land and then commission building work.
That will deliver the 1.5 million cheaper properties said to be needed over the next 10 years.
Soaring house prices has sparked a generational divide as bad as any from Brexit, Mr Hunt declares.
He also suggests Mr Johnson, the front-runner for No10, can talk well on Brexit but not deliver.
Mr Hunt repeats his pledge to the forces’ favourite paper to “back our brave troops”.
His extra £15bn a year for defence will “get us standing tall in the world”.
Jeremy Hunt's No10 pledge to Sun readers
'THE failure to deliver Brexit has put our country in serious peril.
It’s now three years on from a decisive referendum in which the people of this country, and Sun readers in great numbers, voted to take Britain out of the European Union. We need to get a move on.
Decent-minded voters are being pushed towards extremes like Jeremy Corbyn and the Brexit party because mainstream politicians have failed so far to deliver.
Abroad, I see the whole time as Foreign Secretary the way that other countries look at us and wonder what on earth is going on.
So more than anything else the choice in this leadership contest is about who can deliver Brexit.
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It’s not about the best soundbite, or speech, or piece of rhetoric. But about who can actually deliver.
What we need is a negotiator. Someone who has taken risks to start up their own business. Someone with trusted relationships across Europe that can be used to get a better deal. I believe I am that person.
Others may have promised £350million for the NHS on the side of a bus, but I was the Health Secretary who negotiated with a tight-fisted Treasury to actually deliver it. I can do the same to deliver Brexit.
And I’ve got the plan to do it. If we ramp up No Deal preparations we can show Brussels we are serious in our intent.
AFFORDABLE HOMES
And with a new negotiating team we can get the changes needed to get a deal that the country should support.
With the right person in charge we can get out and get out quickly.
Once we have Brexit done we can start focusing on the big challenges that affect our lives:
First, how do we turbocharge our economy? When I was in my twenties I started my own tech business which I grew until it employed hundreds of people.
I know what it takes to get the mojo back in our economy.
It means cutting corporation tax to Irish levels and slashing business rates so that 90 per cent of high street shops do not have to pay them.
If we get it right we can park an economic jumbo jet off the coast of Europe and ensure that in the trade negotiations they need us every bit as much as we need them.
'RIGHT TO OWN' HOMES POLICY
Second, how do we stop the threat of Corbyn and show young people they can trust the Conservative Party again?
Jeremy Corbyn is the most left-wing, anti-British Labour leader in history.
He represents a threat to millions of jobs and would damage our security. But at the last election millions of young people were tempted to take the risk. Why? Because the most basic part of human dignity is having somewhere decent to live. For too many young people that’s just too hard.
People of my generation found buying a house straightforward. Since then house prices have ballooned but average incomes have not.
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It’s left a generational divide between young and old that is as bad as any divide created by the Referendum. So we have to have a plan to make buying a house more affordable for young people.
Margaret Thatcher had a policy called ‘Right to Buy’ that got millions on to the housing ladder for the first time.
Mine is called ‘Right to Own’ and it will do the same. I will take advantage of the massive leap in land value that comes from councils granting planning permission by ensuring the benefit of it goes directly to young people, rather than into the pockets of developers.
Combined with new planning regulations to allow people to build up, with more storeys on top of apartment blocks, this will deliver the new homes we need.
In total my plan will deliver 1.5 million more homes in ten years — giving a whole generation a leg up on to the housing ladder.
BEAT CORBYN
It will give them the dignity and the security of a home they can call their own. That’s the best way to win the next generation — showing them that it’s the Conservative Party that has the practical solutions to the problems they face. Where Corbyn talks, Conservatives do.
Third, we need to have a plan to get Britain standing tall in the world again.
Nothing has given me more pride than to represent Britain abroad as Foreign Secretary. But while Brexit should be a moment for us to step up in the world, the way we’ve handled it has left the rest of the world scratching their heads. Britain deserves better.
My dad was in the Navy. It was his generation that won the Cold War without firing a shot.
They did that because we won the battle of ideas. But also because the USSR knew we were ready to defend ourselves. So as Britain enters a new chapter in its history, I want to equip us for a new role.
We’re a world leader in soft power — our media, our culture and our universities, but I want our hard power to match that.
BOOST FORCES
So I will back our brave troops with a major boost to our defence spending, giving them the resources they need to do the job we ask of them. By raising defence spending from 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent we can afford the kit and capabilities to face new battles against new enemies.
But more than that, showing the world that, just as our parents’ generation stood tall in the Cold War, Britain will always be there to defend and protect those values. This, then, is my plan for Britain: get Brexit done, stop Corbyn, build more homes, and get us standing tall in the world.
Deliver it and we can take advantage of the amazing opportunities this country has.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
The best universities in the world. The most exciting companies. The world’s language and can-do people that have changed history.
It’s a plan to bring people together and deliver Brexit.
Back it and we can unite as a country and win again.'
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The Sun Says
IT’S light on detail, but Jeremy Hunt has a vision for Britain which The Sun would certainly applaud.
He would use his negotiating experience to extract a better Brexit deal and take us out of the EU. Fine. Best of luck.
He would slash business taxes to boost the economy and create jobs. He would raise defence spending substantially.
Crucially he has a plan to build 1.5million homes. That is what’s needed to deliver the Tory property-owning dream to millennials priced out of the market.
Mr Hunt is an excellent Foreign Secretary and could make a good PM. He is decent, thoughtful and steered the NHS with admirable resolve through hard times against a barrage of leftie hate.
But he has a mountain to climb to beat Boris Johnson. The fox-hunting blunder won’t help. You can judge his ideas for yourself on Pages 8 & 9.
If Boris does win power he would be a fool not to keep Mr Hunt in a top job — and take his ideas to heart.
‘Squirming’ Jeremy Hunt backtracks from pledge to repeal fox hunting ban if he becomes PM
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