Labour: “New Towns” and a “new dawn for responsible developers”
With the General Election upon us, we all know that Keir Starmer has declared himself a YIMBY last year ("yes in my back yard") - because he wants to "bulldoze" restrictive planning rules and overrule local campaigns, often led by MPs, to build more homes.
Labour also said that are now the party of home ownership and wants to give people the aspiration back of actually owning a home…for those millions of us who are locked out of the housing market (yes, I am middle aged and there are two of us on decent salaries and we have no prospect of ever owning a home…at the moment!)
Lovely promises and a compelling reason to vote for them, but… thus far, there has been very little actual policy to demonstrate how they are going to achieve this.
Angela Rayner gave a speech at UKREiiF this week and she unveiled some of the policies and initiatives. The main policy is on New Towns. She announced that sites for new "towns of the future" will be unveiled by the end of a Labour government's first year in power. And creating new towns was a key part of Labour’s plan to build 1.5 million homes over five years (a very ambitions 300k a year considering last year we built just over half of that) Angela also said she hopes the private sector will be persuaded to fund the new towns, which will have to include 40% affordable housing.
She announced that a “New Town Commission” would be set up within six months, if Labour wins the general election, and a list of sites decided on within a year. Now I am very happy to confirm that the shadow housing team is indeed in listening mode. We are working on the promotion of one of these new towns and we have found her and her team very receptive and what is more, the local politicians on the ground (including a newly elected Regional Mayor) is also in listening mode.
She promised "a new dawn" for "responsible developers" willing to work in partnership with all levels of government and put green spaces, schools, GPs, and transport links at the heart of new communities. “Labour’s towns of the future will be built on the foundations of our past. The post-war period taught us that when the government plays a strategic role in housebuilding, we can turbo-charge growth to the benefit of working people across Britain."
Angie also confirmed that Labour would reclassify some low-quality areas of Green Belt land, dubbed grey belt, for development, although she would prioritise brownfield sites, which have been previously developed. Prioritising brownfield, then greybelt, are the first two of Labour's five "golden rules" for housebuilding, with the remaining three being that plans must include affordable housing, infrastructure and public services, and green spaces.
It is starting to get a bit clearer and if you do have a Government that uses the stick a bit more than the carrot we might actually get somewhere.
Until next week,
Henry