As Angela Rayner prepares to build 1.5 million homes on the green belt, GB News asks its members if they support the Deputy Prime Minister’s plan.
Rayner is setting her sights on building the 1.5 million additional homes by 2029.
The Housing Secretary will tomorrow unveil a major planning overhaul that will allow construction on more of the buffer around major towns and cities.
Rayner’s measures will likely enable the Deputy Prime Minister to clear an area of the green belt that is the same size as Surrey.
Labour is taking a tough line over the changes, vowing to take on Not In My Back Yard (Nimby) activists.
However, environmentalist Christopher Packham voiced concern about Rayner’s plans.
He told The Times: “The green belt is incredibly important, it was designed to stop urban sprawl and enhance the quality of people’s lives.
“We need to think more creatively about how we can design and build good quality, affordable housing with communities and nature in mind.”
Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner
PA
However, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman suggested the measures were needed to deal with a chronic housing shortage.
He said: “The fact is we face one of the worst housing crises in living memory.
“Home ownership for 19 to 29-year-olds has halved since 1990, that’s why through the plan for change we are delivering for people who work hard and yet still dream of home ownership.
“But if we’re going to hit our ambitious milestone of 1.5 million homes … we are going to need to overhaul the broken planning system.”
Rayner appeared to land herself in hotwater over the weekend after dismissing concerns about migration levels by arguing “there is plenty of housing already, but there’s not enough for the people that desperately need it”.
In the contentious exchange, Sky News’ Trevor Phillips challenged Rayner on Labour’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes while projecting 2.5 million immigrants would enter the UK.
The Deputy Prime Minister insisted the homes under Labour’s affordable homes programme would be “for people who desperately need them, local people.”
Do you support Angela Rayner’s green belt development plan to build 1.5 million homes? Vote in our poll and have your say in the comments section below.
