Our country needs new houses built. Great Yarmouth needs new homes for people wanting to start on the property ladder, and we also need a healthy stock of social housing for those in need. We cannot underestimate the importance of building homes.
However, and this is the important bit, this can only be accomplished in the right way if housing numbers are achievable and sensible, and do not side-line local communities.
Labour’s new housing targets are bad news for Great Yarmouth. Thankfully, the Borough Council are ahead of many other local authorities in the country and should get their Local Plan for new future development to the Government before next March, meaning we will fall under the lower previous housing target of roughly 6,000 houses for Great Yarmouth - taking us up to 2041. Under Labour's new imposed figures, we would be looking at an unachievable 48% increase on the annual housing targets. Local authorities would be forced by legislation to comply with these numbers, as they are now under the current targets. However, lets not jump the gun. If the Borough does not get the local plan of 6,460 houses to the Government, for any external reason, or the Planning Inspectorate founds the plan unsound, then the full weight of possibly 10,000 houses may fall upon us.
So as we see, the new Government's blanket approach forces unrealistic housing quotas on areas like Great Yarmouth, without considering our local needs, infrastructure, or identity. Instead, they expect us to make up the housing numbers for where Labour MPs are being allowed lower targets. In fact, fourteen members of Labour’s frontbench, including Angela Rayner, Steve Reed and Wes Streeting, have all campaigned to block development in their constituencies. In some Conservative constituencies there is a 113 per cent increase to housebuilding targets, while in some Labour constituencies, there is only a one per cent increase.
Residents know my thoughts on the importance of grassroot level representation. When it comes to matters such as planning reforms, I believe in local decision-making that reflects the priorities of Great Yarmouth residents—not diktats from Westminster. We need sustainable growth that balances new homes with protecting our unique environment and infrastructure, and a method of doing so which is pragmatic and accomplishable. Labour's new planning reforms will only enforce the opposite, while also bypassing the consent of local people in Great Yarmouth in high development areas.
Unfortunately, in these reforms, we find ourselves looking at another one-size-fits-all approach; a common collective staple of past and present Labour Governments. Wherever Labour have been in power, they consistently fail to deliver on housebuilding. These changes will be no different.
