THE chance to own your own home should be available to everyone who works hard.

That was the aspiration David Cameron put his name to in the last Conservative Manifesto. A lot has changed since then. Mr Cameron, for example, now inhabits the margins of public life, but the Tory house building spree is something the party remains firmly wedded to.

If you voted Conservative in the last General Election then you were showing support for a party that made a very public pledge to build hundreds of thousands of new homes by the end of the decade. Developers are eager to build in attractive areas that will appeal to prospective home buyers. It was no surprise therefore to see them propose a scheme in leafy Hurworth, near Darlington, and it was no surprise to see the development given the go ahead.

Members of the Hurworth Against Detrimental Development group were last night “appalled” after Darlington Borough Council planning application committee members voted in favour of the 100-home plan. All across our region similar plans are in place that will extend the reach of towns into surrounding villages, potentially changing their character and no doubt putting pressure on local infrastructure, such as roads, schools and hospitals.

Mindful that high house prices frustrate people trying to get on the property ladder the Conservatives regard a massive housebuilding scheme as a means of wooing younger, aspirational voters, and also giving the construction trade a kick-start – although it’s worth noting their plans have so far done little to help small building firms compete with the big national operators.

Last month, Sajid Javid, local government minister, hammered home the government’s position, when he said: “It’s time to stop sitting on land banks and stop delaying build-out. The homebuyers must come first.”

The Hurworth case is the tip of the iceberg.