Labour’s housing drive ‘like watching a nightmare car crash’, councils warn
Labour’s building targets will spark “constant warfare on housing” across rural England, council leaders have warned.
Local authorities bosses told The Telegraph that the new Government was expecting countryside communities to build “London’s homes” – without providing extra funding for infrastructure.
They warned that life would only get worse for rural residents already grappling with gridlocked roads and oversubscribed GP services.
Labour has committed to building 1.5m new homes over the next Parliament and has handed councils their own fresh targets.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has said those who do not meet their targets will have housing plans imposed on them, and wrote to authorities to say they have “not just a professional responsibility but a moral obligation to see more homes built”.
But while some rural areas face increases to their housebuilding outputs of as much as 80pc, London’s housing target has instead been slashed.
Council leaders are now pleading with the Treasury to increase funding for infrastructure projects before all these new homes are built.
Richard Clewer, leader of Conservative-run Wiltshire Council, said: “These new targets will just lead to constant warfare on housing. It’s like watching a nightmare car crash. In five or 10 years’ time, it will have just increased our cost pressures and made residents’ lives worse.
“We’ll have to settle for hundreds of unsustainable, cookie cutter developments with zero infrastructure around them. I don’t want to be expected to build London’s homes.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already begun to cut infrastructure funding to councils, as part of efforts to patch up the “surprise” £22bn black hole in the country’s finances.
David Simmonds, shadow parliamentary under secretary for housing, said the loss of infrastructure – including GPs, roads and bus funding – will make it “even harder” to get Labour’s homes built.
The Tory MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner added: “There are around 1.4m unbuilt homes with planning permission already, so it’s odd that Labour is prioritising removing greenbelt protections rather than getting homes that are shovel-ready built first.”
Wiltshire Council’s target for new homes has shot up by 81pc, so it will now need to build 3,476 homes a year, rather than 1,917.
Since setting these targets, Labour has also scrapped £2bn plans to fund the two-mile “Stonehenge Tunnel” destined to ease traffic congestion along the A303 in Wiltshire.
Martin Tett, leader of Conservative-run Buckinghamshire Council, said the new targets were “cataclysmic” for his residents.
With a third of the county classed as green belt or areas of outstanding natural beauty, Mr Tett fears the “lung for London” will now become “a landbank for developers”.
He said: “The Government’s objective is to force local councils to take all the really difficult decisions. They want the councils to be unpopular, not the Government.
“These ‘top down targets’ have [been] weighted away from the big cities where the housing need is greatest. It won’t escape anyone that London has a Labour Mayor who is failing in his housing targets.”
Buckinghamshire now needs to build 4,122 homes a year, rather than 2,912 – marking a 42pc increase. Meanwhile, four-week waits for a GP appointment in the county reached 131,010 last year, a 44pc annual increase, according to analysis of NHS data by the Liberal Democrats.
North Norfolk County Council has been told to build 70pc more homes a year, but Liberal Democrat leader Tim Adams said residents already had difficulty accessing GPs and dentists.
He said: “More services are closing, and it’s hard to attract people to run these practices out here. This issue will only grow with the pressure of new homes, if we aren’t given funding to keep pace between the two.
“Developer contributions don’t build a doctor or dentist, and they certainly don’t fund the running of them.”
Kent County Council leader Roger Gough, a Conservative, said rural communities were “taking the overspill” and feeling the impact of London not being able to “consume its own smoke” on housing demands.
He said: “It’s a bit galling seeing this underwritten. And in the same breath, the Government is taking the cork off green belt constraints. That’s a major change.”
The Local Government Association said council spending power had fallen 23pc over 15 years and faces a further £6.2bn funding gap over the next two years.
A government spokesman said: “We have made clear we will work closely with councils to deliver the homes we need. Homes will come alongside the necessary infrastructure, including roads, schools and GP surgeries, and making use of poor-quality grey-belt will help us protect our precious green spaces.”