Labour’s new Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves used her first speech in office to promise 1,500,000 news homes over the next five years.
It’s part of her plan to ‘kickstart economic growth’ by overhauling the planning system, reintroducing mandatory housing targets, and ‘[accelerating] stalled housing sites’.
‘Planning reform has become a byword for political timidity in the face of vested interests and a graveyard of economic ambition’, Reeves said.
Warning the UK is in ‘the worst set of circumstances since the Second World War’, Reeves claimed the country’s economy is £140billion smaller than it would have been had it kept pace with other OECD members.
This cost the country £58billion in potential tax revenues last year alone – money that could have gone to the NHS, schools and public services, according to Reeves.
She said: ‘Our economy has been held back by decisions deferred and decisions ducked.
‘Political self-interest put ahead of the national interest. A government that put party first, country second.’
The new government has already lifted a ban on onshore windfarms in England.
Now it’s also turning its sights to four construction projects across England, which could deliver more than 14,000 homes once complete.
Reeves said the Labour government ‘will create a new taskforce to accelerate stalled housing sites in our country’.
This will begin with four sites – Liverpool Central Docks, Worcestershire Parkway, Northstowe and Langley Sutton Coldfield.
Some are more ‘stalled’ than others. But what are they?
Liverpool Central Docks
Granted planning permission in March 2023, this is described as ‘the beating heart’ of Peel Group’s £5.5billion Liverpool Waters development.
If complete, it could see the construction of 330 new ‘smart homes’ in addition to the existing 237 occupied homes and a new ferry terminal to the Isle of Man.
The wider Liverpool Waters project, aimed at regenerating the city’s historic docks, played a role in UNESCO stripping its World Heritage Site status in 2021.
Chris Capes, director of development for Liverpool Waters, said: ‘It is great to hear that the new chancellor of the exchequer has Central Docks on her radar and is looking to accelerate the delivery of a highly sustainable housing community, delivering thousands of homes as well as creating one of Liverpool’s largest new green spaces.
‘The team at Peel Waters welcome any opportunity to work in partnership with the new government to drive forward the waterfront regeneration of Liverpool’s northern docklands.’
Worcestershire Parkway
Centred on the Worcestershire Parkway train station, opened in February 2020, this would be a whole new town of some 10,000 houses if completed.
St Modwen Homes and Hallam Land Management put forward initial plans for 2,500 homes in October last year.
Proposals include two primary schools and two neighbourhood centres, along with employment opportunities, Worcester News reported.
The developers’ final vision for 2060 is ‘a carbon neutral functioning town with an estimated population of 24,000’ close to Junction 7 of the M5.
Northstowe, Cambridgeshire
This would be the UK’s biggest housing development since the grid plan of Milton Keynes was built from scratch in the 1960s.
But with no shop, café or GP surgery built in the six years since the first residents moved in, it was dubbed a ‘broken promise with no heart’ by the BBC in July 2023.
It had three schools by then, along with a public transport system, sports facilities and more than 1,200 homes inhabited.
Once completed, developer L&Q Estates hopes it will house roughly 26,000 people in 10,000 new properties just northwest of Cambridge.
The university city ‘has one of the worst housing crises in the UK’, according to Freddie Poser, executive director of the housing campaign group PricedOut.
Its university, economy and proximity to London drive demand with ‘nowhere near enough homes’ to meet it, he told the Financial Times.
Just last month, South Cambridgeshire councillors warned of a ‘crisis’ given the ‘incredible costs’ by young people looking for somewhere to live in the local area, CambridgeshireLive reported.
For now, however, the rate Northstowe is scaling up at feels far short of the vision promised to its ‘pioneer’ residents like Pamela Nally.
The 43-year-old expected amenities to open within a year of buying her home there in February 2021.
She said: ‘It’s like building a home without a kitchen.’
Langley Sutton Coldfield
This town on the northeastern edge of Birmingham is already home to 110,000 people.
Described by developers as ‘an unparalleled opportunity’, this project could see an extra 5,500 homes built on fields between Sutton Coldfield and the A38.
It would also include a secondary school, as many as six nurseries and three primary schools, along with parks, a health centre and a sports hub.
Although Sutton Coldfield isn’t exactly known for its housing woes, its nextdoor neighbour, dubbed the ‘youngest city in Europe’, is expected to soon have a chronic housing shortage.
With 40% of Birmingham’s residents under the age of 35, a large number of people are expected to be seeking homes of their own in the next 20 years.
Still at the planning stage, the scheme has managed to cause some controversy already, BirminghamLive reported.
Local residents have expressed anger at plans they say would destroy trees and hedges, and erect a barrier between the new site and the existing Walmley.
David Cooke, planning spokesperson for Walmley Residents’ Association, said: ‘We didn’t want this development but we have it. There’s no point fighting lost battles. But we have to make the most of it.’
Some of these issues were picked up on by Dr Abi O’Connor, a researcher at the New Economic Forum think tank, who criticised the housing plan on X.
O’Connor said: ‘Building homes without necessary infrastructure = creating isolated communities.
‘No investment in social housing and protections for renters = we remain in crisis. Relying on private development = profit over quality.’
She added: ‘Social homes can’t be a by-product of private development.’
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