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Labour leader Keir Starmer has pledged to kickstart Britain’s housebuilding by utilising areas of the green belt, dubbed ‘grey belt’.
Starmer, speaking at the party’s conference in Liverpool, also pledged to take on councils who refuse to develop local plans, as well as prevent land bankers from sitting on brownfield sites.
He said: “Labour is the party that protects our green spaces. No party fights harder for our environment. We created the national parks. Created the green-belt in the first place. I grew up in Surrey.
“But where there are clearly ridiculous uses of it, disused car parks, dreary wasteland. Not a green belt. A grey belt. Sometimes within a city’s boundary. Then this cannot be justified as a reason to hold our future back.”
He added: “Today we launch a new plan to get Britain building again.
“No more land-bankers sitting comfortably on brownfield sites while rents in their community rise.
“No more councils refusing to develop a local plan because they prefer the back-door deals.
“No more inertia in the face of resistance – and there will be resistance from people who say – no, we don’t want Britain’s future here.
“My message to them is this. A future must be built. That is the responsibility of a serious government. And if we continually wash our hands of this task – we all end up stuck in a rut. Just like now.
“So it’s time to get Britain building again. It’s time to build one and half million new homes across the country.”
Starmer pledged to relax planning regulations to build a “next generation of Labour new towns”, while developments could reportedly come in the form of five-storey Georgian-style townhouse blocks.
Labour said it has a plan of ‘Unleashing Mayors’ – giving them stronger powers over planning and control of housing investment.
Meanwhile there will be a ‘planning passport’ for urban brownfield development, with a fast track approval and delivery of high-density housing on urban brownfield sites.
Starmer’s speech was generally received positively from the property industry.
Claire Petricca-Riding head of planning & environment at Irwin Mitchell solicitors, said: “This will be welcome news to a sector where the last year of uncertainty, raising inflation and interest rates as well as the near collapse of local plans means that planning applications for housing developments have fallen to a record low.
“It is certainly a bold statement from the opposition – selling a vision and strategy – ‘Together we fix tomorrow’s challenges.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “Billions of pounds of investment can be unlocked by accelerating the development of brownfield sites and we look forward to discussing the detail of the proposed ‘planning passports’ with Labour to ensure that we maximise their potential to accelerate development and deliver high quality homes and amenities that meet local needs.
“Our members invest for the long term and the vision of a new generation of thriving new towns is one we support as part of a comprehensive strategy to build the homes and sustainable communities the country needs.”
Nathan Emerson, chief executive at Propertymark, said: “Propertymark encourages the future UK Government to increase development on brownfield land within city and town centres, especially where there is already a high demand for housing.
“Therefore, Propertymark welcomes Labour’s commitment to build more homes on brownfield sites, and we urge them to clarify how they will meet this ambition. It is the key to constructing the housing infrastructure this country desperately needs.”
Nick Sanderson, chief executive of Audley Group, said: “Keir Starmer focused today on building more houses. He is right that we need more housing availability, but not that we need more bricks and mortar.
“Whole swathes of new towns springing up will do less to ‘build a new Britain’ than would freeing up the many under-occupied houses that already exist. We have a growing older population and there is enormous demand for more specialist retirement housing, with health and welling services on site.
“Focus on meeting that demand, and you increase flow in the housing market automatically for first time buyers.”
Katy Davis, head of Carter Jonas’s London Planning & Development team, said: “It’s difficult to get excited about yet another announcement on new towns / garden towns / garden villages / eco towns etc…
“However, it’s very positive news that Labour recognises the ‘grey belt’ – a great term which describes the substantial amount of low-quality (mostly brownfield land) that is unnecessarily protected by the outdated, broad-brush Green Belt allocation.
“Additionally, the release of low-quality car parks and brownfield land, has the potential to be developed into truly sustainable communities. Admittedly the debate and the passage of legislation would be difficult, but we certainly look forward to the opportunities that this could bring.”
Phil Jenkins, managing director at corporate finance advisor Centrus, said: “With significant and long-lasting challenges within the property market, it’s been clear that any government wishing to create a noteworthy wave of supply of affordable and social housing must consider more radical initiatives to increase supply- and reduce the cost- of land. Sir Keir’s speech is a welcome acknowledgement of the need to tackle the housing shortfall.
“What is not yet clear is how a Labour government will deliver significant volumes of affordable housing as part of the tenure mix. Without a material increase in grant levels, or effective levers in relation to land values, it will remain challenging for the yields available for shared ownership or subsidised rents to match up with the returns required from institutional investors to unlock this major pool wave of long term investment. It feels like a step in the right direction, but much more detail will likely be required before those investors looking to deploy capital into the sector come on board.”