The Labour government’s proposed planning reforms will undermine local democratic control of development, imposing huge and arbitrary house-building targets that ignore real local need, claims Stroud District Green Party, writes Sue Fenton.
For Stroud District, proposed changes mean the number of new houses to be built each year would increase from 620 to 844 – up from 12,800 to 16,000 new homes in the plan period to 2040.
‘Our communities are struggling with the cost of housing, there’s no doubt about that. But these reforms seem intended simply to boost the economy by promoting the building industry, rather than addressing the real issues of affordability, climate change and nature loss, and the types of housing our communities want and need,” said Green councillor Chloe Turner, who chairs Stroud District Council’s Environment committee.
She added: “Greens recognise that a balance needs to be struck between the genuine need for new homes, for agriculture, for nature, for social infrastructure, for clean energy, and for commercial development. We developed our Local Plan alongside our communities in order to meet the existing housing targets, and it sets out how these competing needs can be balanced across our district. But with these proposed changes, Labour are shifting the balance in favour of developers, putting their profit before our communities’ needs and our environment. Instead we need to see investment from government to address the lack of transport and community infrastructure that’s holding back new developments.”
Th Green Party believes that Labour’s pledge to build 1.5m homes is probably undeliverable and that the focus should be on delivering genuinely affordable homes.
“Our Green-led Council has given consent for nearly two thousand homes on large sites across the district that are as yet unbuilt,” said Cllr Turner. “The last time England was building 300,000 homes a year was in the late 1960s, when social housing – almost entirely built by councils – made up around half of the total supply.
“Housing for social rent should be the priority across the country. Many rural communities lack the housing for workers in essential jobs including agriculture, public services and the services industries that much of the rural economy rests on. Our Green-led Council is taking a leading role in social housing, building its own good quality, clean energy homes across the district and buying homes from the market whenever possible to further boost the Council’s supply.”
Stroud District Green councillor Martin Brown, vice-chair of the Environment committee, said: “We are calling for a new definition of ‘affordable’ reflecting the real incomes of those in housing need. We would welcome a social housing investment programme. Greens would also focus on bringing the 260,000 long-term empty homes nationwide back into use, removing the blight of empty homes on streets and helping to reduce the carbon cost of new house-building.”
He added: “There are positive elements to the proposed changes – we welcome the emphasis on brownfield sites, renewable energy and provision for community land trusts, for example – but Greens would take a very different approach.
“We want to achieve the right homes, in the right places, at the right price – housing targets based on real local need, an investment programme for social housing and an emphasis on good quality, efficient, clean energy homes for all. Stroud District’s Green councillors urge the government to reconsider these proposals and instead use its mandate for change to deliver the homes and infrastructure our residents are calling for.”
