Labour Party eyeing up green belt sites in housebuilding blitz
29 June 2024, 23:38 | Updated: 30 June 2024, 08:57
Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are to begin a housebuilding blitz in the first weeks of power if Labour win Thursday’s general election, according to The Sunday Times.
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At least three housing announcements are expected in the first two weeks of a Labour government which will include a local authority-led review of green belt land, according to reports.
This comes after Sir Keir pledged to “hit the ground running” and increase housebuilding from “day one” while campaigning on Saturday.
The party leader has previously said he would take a "yimby" - which stands for "yes in my backyard" - approach to new housing while still protecting the countryside.
He had also said he was an advocate for more affordable housing in the UK - in contrast to the culture of 'nimbyism", where people object to new developments near existing homes.
By the end of July, Labour would look to publish a draft national planning policy framework that would reimpose targets to ensure local housing needs are being met by councils.
Most young people cannot afford to buy their first home without financial support from their family, according to The Sunday Times.
A report published on the UK Parliament website in March found: “Young people in 2021 were still half as likely to own their own home than young people 30 years earlier had been.”
The Labour leader and Shadow Chancellor discussed their plans to boost the economy should Labour become elected on July 4.
Sir Keir said : “I want to hit the ground running. I want to make sure that we can make a start on this on day one.”
While Reeves said there was an “urgency” for homes to be built because “we know that for kids like us today (from working-class backgrounds) some of those opportunities to (own a home) don’t exist."
Read more: Sir Elton John becomes latest celebrity to endorse Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party
Should Labour return to power this week, Anegla Raynor, the incoming housing secretary, will announce a housebuilding programme at the start of the party’s second week in power.
By the following week she plans to instruct local authorities to start “regularly reviewing” their green belt boundaries to ensure housing targets are met with the hope councils will identify areas to be reclassified for development.
Green belt sites were introduced to limit urban sprawl by making areas strictly controlled.
The reclassification of just 1 percent green belt sites in England could lead to as many as 738,000 new homes, according to research by Searchland, a specialist development site sourcing company.
Reeves, who has previously called for a “common sense” approach to building on the green belt, said: “We all know that there is building on greenfield [sites] today, but it’s chaotic. We also know there are different types of green belt land. Just because something’s designated ‘green belt’ does not mean it’s green.”
Labour would look to recruit 300 planning officers to speed up the process of grant permission for developments.
They would also create a “first dibs” scheme, prioritising new homes for local residents to prevent properties from being sold to overseas investors.
These policies will be the key to Sir Keir's pledge to build 1.5 million homes over the next parliament after the Conservatives failed to meet their 2019 manifesto commitment to build 300,000 homes a year.
Questioned on whether Labour would meet this Tory target in the first year, Sir Keir said: “It’s more likely, I think we’ll ramp up over the parliament. Therefore, towards the end of that, we’ll be doing more than the 300,000 [a year].”
This comes after the Labour leader promised to work “hand in glove” with Sadiq Khan to ease the city’s housing crisis.
According to Trust for London, during 2023, one in every 50 Londoners was homeless in temporary accommodation (TA), and the equivalent of one child in every classroom.
