Election 2024: Starmer and Reeves plan green belt house building blitz
Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are planning a house building blitz, including asking councils to review green belt land, in their first days in office if Labour wins power on July 4th.
The Labour leader and shadow Chancellor – who would be the first woman in Britain to run the Treasury – have promised to “hit the ground running” on house building from “day one”.
Sir Keir told the Sunday Times he wanted to start work on the party’s housing pledges – which include building 1.5m homes during the next Parliament, identifying ‘grey belt’ – low quality green belt, land for development and hiring 300 new planning officers – immediately.
Starmer said: “I want to make sure that we can make a start on this on day one.”
Reeves added: “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.”
She said there was an “urgency” for Labour to tackle this.
“We know that for [working-class] kids like us today, some of those opportunities [to own a home] don’t exist,” she added.
Key announcements in Labour’s first two weeks in power, the Sunday Times said, include publishing a draft national planning policy framework, which will reimpose housing targets; deputy leader and shadow housing secretary Angela Rayner announcing a house building programme; and local authorities instructed to “regularly review” green belt boundaries.
Local residents will be offered ‘first dibs’ on a certain number of new homes, in a bid to stop newly-built homes being bought up by overseas investors.
Asked whether Labour would deliver 300,000 homes in its first year in government – a fifth of the overall 1.5m target – Starmer 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 300,000 [a year].”
The Conservatives made a manifesto commitment in 2019 to build 300,000 homes a year but have never hit that target.
It comes as CityAM launched its ‘Build Baby Build’ campaign, calling for planning reform and urging against essential projects for London’s growth and prosperity being blocked.