Richard Foord, MP for Sidmouth and Honiton writes for the Midweek Herald.

Here is a sobering statistic – 3,065. That is the number of families currently on the social housing waiting list in East Devon; up 18% on last year.

There are too few houses available, and it’s almost impossible for younger people to find a place to buy or rent that is genuinely affordable.

How might people afford a place they can call home? The Labour Government is expected to set out their approach in Wednesday’s King’s Speech: 1.5 million new homes across the next five years, by reverting to top-down targets.

This poses several questions. How might these plans be delivered in areas like East Devon, where much of the countryside is designated a National Landscape (previously an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty)? How can we preserve the identity of existing communities and protect green wedges that separate them?

Most people accept that we need more homes; they just want to ensure they are the sort of homes that people who live locally genuinely need. Yet for the big developers, their aim is to make as much money as possible. This means we often see proposals that are made up mostly of expensive four- and five-bedroom houses.

Developers should not just build houses; they are building and expanding communities – and existing communities must have a role in the development of new plans. Additionally, we need to build in a way that is sympathetic to nature.

I want to see our more social homes, replenishing our local housing stock. I would like to see sustainable communities built by having accompanying infrastructure – indeed, that we see it in advance of more house building.

Housing and planning are principally the responsibility of the local planning authority – East Devon District Council, in this case. While MPs should not tinker in the work of the local planning authority, we do have a responsibility for amending national guidelines such as the National Planning Policy Framework.

Many rural communities here already feel let down by a lack of infrastructure and services. I see this first-hand as your MP, with a postbag full of letters expressing concern – not just about roads, but also about how people here cannot see an NHS dentist and cannot get their children special educational needs provision.

Any proposal to increase house building needs to deal with how this broader set of social infrastructure is provided. Without such accompanying services, I fear that enforcing more house building could leave new or expanded communities feeling hollow.