Housing minster backs new homes and EU during visit

MP Brandon Lewis was visiting the site of the development’s first phase, Q1, along the A16 on Friday at the invite of Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman.

He was greeted by Boston Borough Council representatives along with Chestnut Homes managing director David Newton who showed him the plans.

The minister described the the plans as ‘really good on a few levels’ and praised that ‘the infrastructure is leading the way’ for the planned 500 new homes.

He added: “It’s good to see the kind of development where local authories are working with the developers to deliver affordable new homes.”

He said housing was important and ‘good for the local economy’.

Mr Lewis is a proponent of staying in the European Union.

He said he believed that: “What we are seeing locally is people who have migrated here and are looking at buying homes. That shows they want to be a long-term community.”

He pointed to the country’s history of immigration - including Roman and Viking era’s.

“They play a big part in employment, and in the housing industry we need labour to build the homes we need,” he said.

He added: “We need the strength of being in the European Union to continue to see housing coming forward.”

He said 750,000 people are set to retire from the industry in the next decade and that immigrants could help replace those skills.

He said the country had to make plans, not just for families now but also for the next generation.

Mr Newton said the meeting ‘went very well’.

Affordable houses are set to make up 20 per cent of the development.

Work is set to begin on the roundabout which will lead into the planned community stadium for Boston United, housing development and distributor road ‘in the next few weeks’.

It is hoped work will start at about the same time on the community stadium and housing in September/October.

The second phase of the Quadrant is in the planning stage and details are currently ‘a long way off going public’.