Across the UK councils have lashed back against Labour’s housing target of 1.5 million new privately-built homes over the next five years.
According to the BBC,
Many fear the algorithm used to calculate the targets has not taken into account strains on local infrastructure, land shortages, and a lack of capacity in the planning system and construction industry.
There are questions about whether the targets even match housing need in particular areas. Come to that, what about employment?
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It seems housing targets have been largely based on projections about how many people will live in a local area in the coming years, but the Tories chose to ‘lock in’ housing targets based on projections made in 2014 – presumably in one of the many cost-saving (ha ha!) austerity measures they were imposing at the time.
Now Labour wants targets for new homes to be based on the current number of houses in an area and how affordable those properties are, rather than the number of people expected to be living there in years to come.
This Writer can’t see that either method is practical. The question is, how many people will want to live in a particular area? That will be based on the number of employment opportunities available, and on the availability of infrastructure like schools, NHS medical centres, parks and shops. Oh – it seems nobody in Labour has thought about that either.
This is looking like an utter mess – and while the Tories might be responsible for causing it, it seems Labour has done nothing to correct the inaccurate predictions on which housing targets are based. If those targets aren’t corrected, we could be looking at huge problems for decades to come.
What’s the betting that Starmer and his team of top minds will ignore it?
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Councils have lashed back against Labour’s housing target
Across the UK councils have lashed back against Labour’s housing target of 1.5 million new privately-built homes over the next five years.
According to the BBC,
There are questions about whether the targets even match housing need in particular areas. Come to that, what about employment?
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
It seems housing targets have been largely based on projections about how many people will live in a local area in the coming years, but the Tories chose to ‘lock in’ housing targets based on projections made in 2014 – presumably in one of the many cost-saving (ha ha!) austerity measures they were imposing at the time.
Now Labour wants targets for new homes to be based on the current number of houses in an area and how affordable those properties are, rather than the number of people expected to be living there in years to come.
This Writer can’t see that either method is practical. The question is, how many people will want to live in a particular area? That will be based on the number of employment opportunities available, and on the availability of infrastructure like schools, NHS medical centres, parks and shops. Oh – it seems nobody in Labour has thought about that either.
This is looking like an utter mess – and while the Tories might be responsible for causing it, it seems Labour has done nothing to correct the inaccurate predictions on which housing targets are based. If those targets aren’t corrected, we could be looking at huge problems for decades to come.
What’s the betting that Starmer and his team of top minds will ignore it?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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