Tories warned that Keir Starmer’s housebuilding bonanza will scarcely keep up with immigration today – even if he hits his target for 1.5million homes over the next five years.
Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake blamed the government for ‘concreting over the Green Belt’ to house arrivals as the PM pledged to rip up the ‘broken’ planning system.
Sir Keir said he would prioritise ‘human beings wanting to have a house’ over the environment as he joined his deputy Angela Rayner in unveiling a radical overhaul of the rules.
The changes for England – designed to stop so-called ‘Nimbys’ stopping development – could see hundreds of thousands of acres of Green Belt land redesignated as low-value ‘grey belt’ land.
The new framework also imposes mandatory housing numbers on local authorities across the country – many of which have already been condemned as unachievable.
But campaigners warned that lawyers would be the major winners from the move, while councils face being ‘swamped’ with ‘speculative’ proposals for building on protected land.
The government released estimates of the targets for local areas in the summer, which were revised today. The numbers for London and the South East increased after more weight was put on local ‘affordability’ in the formula.
The projections included comparisons to existing targets under the present method, first presented in 2018, as well as the average number of new homes that have been built in recent years.
In Fareham, Labour’s new strategy would need the local Tory-controlled council to create 800 new houses a year – up from a target of 498 when calculated by the present method.
That was almost seven times the average number of new homes built in the Hampshire town – where Tory ex-home secretary Suella Braverman is the local MP – in 2020/21 and 2022/23 of just 115.
Mr Hollinrake told the Commons this morning: ‘This planning framework pushes development to rural areas, concreting over green belt, green fields and our green and pleasant land, rather than focusing and supporting building in urban areas where we need to build the most.
‘And to what end? Due to the loosening of restrictions on the visa requirements such as the salary threshold and the scrapping of the Rwanda deterrent, the majority of the homes they deliver will be required for people coming into this country rather than for British citizens.’
Sir Keir has blamed the Tory government after huge revisions to official data published last month revealed the net immigration to the UK was 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
That was 166,000 above the initial estimate of 740,000.
A similar revision was made for net migration in the year to December 2023, which was originally thought to be 685,000 and is now put at 866,000, an increase of 181,000.
Arrivals in the 12 months to June this year were 728,000 higher than those leaving the country. In itself, that was nearly as much as the previous long-term immigration record.
The Treasury’s OBR watchdog has predicted that net annual migration to the UK as a whole will subside to 315,000 a year over the ‘medium term’ – although that estimate now looks in grave doubt.
Asked on a visit to a construction site in Cambridgeshire this morning whether environmental concerns would stand in the way of building, Sir Keir said: ‘The starting point is local plans, and that’s really important for councils to develop the plan according to the target, taking into account local need and working with developers.
‘But are we going to push it through if those plans don’t work? Yes, we absolutely are.
‘Are we going to push away the planning rules and make them clearer, as we have done today, get away the blockers that are stopping the houses being built? Yes, we are absolutely intent.
‘For years, we have had not enough houses being built. That means that individuals and families don’t have the security that they want.
‘We are determined to break through that, to do what’s necessary.
‘Of course, we want to get the balance right with nature and the environment, but if it comes to a human being wanting to have a house for them and their family, that has to be the top priority.’
Mr Hollinrake said that Labour’s housing plans would amount to ‘bulldozing’ green belt sites.
He told Sky News: ‘We’re not against building more homes. So we agree with those parts of the plan. What we disagree with is bulldozing greenfield, green belt sites. That’s what we’ll see. We’ll see many of these homes delivered in rural areas, yet a lowering of targets in urban areas, particularly London.’
The government plans would see 370,000 homes built every year for the rest of the Parliament.
Portsmouth City Council has been told to add 1,021 under the new target, up from 897 using the current method.
Just 120 new homes have actually been built there, on average, in recent years.
North Yorkshire is being ordered to build 4,077 new homes, slightly down from the 4,232 pencilled in for July.
But it is up from the 1,361 homes under the previous target. An average of 3,150 new homes were built yearly across 2020/21 and 2022/23.
Cornwall must create 4,421 homes under Labour’s target, up from 2,707 using the old method and more than the 2,650 homes built, on average, in recent years.
The Isle of Wight has been told to build more than double the average annual number of new homes it achieved in those two years (370) under a proposed new target of 1,062.
Overall, the South East is required to create 70,681 new homes a year under the new strategy for determining housing targets.
This was up from 51,251 under the previous method. Only London has a higher goal at 87,992 – compared to the 80,693 Labour had originally proposed. The capital has been generating just 35,000 homes a year recently.
It was higher than the East of England (45,429), South West (39,992), North West (34,678), West Midlands (29,940), East Midlands (25,764), Yorkshire and The Humber (24,957), and North East (10,976).
One expert claimed the Green Belt overhaul could free up space for 2.5 million homes.
That sparked warning that the changes would trigger a new wave of ‘urban sprawl’ – which the designation was meant to avoid.
This action overturns the previous Conservative government’s decision to reduce goals after concluding they were ineffectual.
If a development complies with planning regulations, council members on the planning committee will lose their authority to prevent it.
The ability to circumvent the standard planning procedure for important infrastructure, including prisons and the power pylons connecting new wind and solar farms to the grid, would also be granted to ministers.
Today’s package provided £100 million to councils to enable them to revise their plans and assess which areas of their local green belt should be released for development.
But Victoria Du Croz, Head of Planning at Forster’s law firm, warned that the definition of the ‘grey belt’ was not clear enough.
‘Today’s response to the NPPF consultation means that there is going to be ongoing ambiguity around what land is classified as ‘grey belt’.
‘Despite an overwhelming consensus from the industry that greater specificity is needed over what land should be removed from the greenbelt and made available to development, the Government has failed to provide this today, though has referenced that there will be further guidance around the grey belt definition in the New Year.
‘Without increased clarity the definition of grey belt will be played out at appeal and in the courts, delaying planning applications and fundamentally delaying the provision of new homes.’
Countryside charity CPRE said the ‘broken housebuilding market’ was to blame for ‘painfully’ slow delivery of new homes.
‘When big housebuilders deliberately limit the supply of new homes to maximise their profits, supercharging the current system will not lead to the change the government is looking for, chief executive Roger Mortlock said.
‘The government’s plans risk a huge hike in the number of unaffordable, car-dependent homes. Building on England’s 1.2 million shovel-ready brownfield sites would do far more to unlock growth, regenerate communities and provide sustainable, genuinely affordable new homes.
‘We welcome the commitment to local plans and affordable homes. However, local authorities responsible for delivering new homes will be swamped with speculative applications on high-quality Green Belt and farmland. Inevitably, many of these will be approved to meet nationally imposed targets.
‘The ‘grey belt’ policy needs to be much more clearly defined and exclude working farms. It will undermine the Green Belt, one of this country’s most successful spatial protections with enormous potential to help address the climate and nature emergencies.
Our greenbelt is being blitzed by the same individuals who claim to care about public health, carbon emissions, and other issues. Power is all that matters to them, and then these houses that they are going to create will accommodate millions of migrants that our government have let into this country.
We don’t have enough housing stock to accommodate people—and by people I mean people who were born in the UK, not migrants who are pouring over because our foolish government is permitting it. I find the loss of our lovely green places to be very upsetting.
Many of the green areas that I have such pleasant memories of are gradually vanishing, and we have been duped into believing that if we voice our displeasure, we are NIMBYs.
Labour intends to cause as much harm as possible in the time they have left because they are aware that they are unlikely to win the next election and that politics of envy have turned into politics of vengeance.
The NHS is in crisis, so why don’t we bring another couple of million or two into our country? There are not enough homes, so why don’t we bring in more migrants to our country? There are food shortages because farms are being bankrupted and sold to Starmer’s friends in energy firms, so bring in more migrants. Not enough school places, doctors surgeries or dentists, yes, just bring in a few more million to add to the waiting list. Not enough water or reliable sewage treatment plants, go on, bring in more and more and more! This country is a battleground.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 