Millipede promises to drive stake through heart of Middle England support base

ruggedtoast

A massive number of new houses WILL be built under a Labour government.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/15/ed-miliband-housebuilding-labour-councils-developers

Nimby councils will be railroaded into accepting new developments and builders will face stiff penalties for land hoarding.


Stentorian

Shocked into action by the recent reports that 99% of the British public would rather spend Christmas Day sitting on David Cameron's knee listening to Gary Glitter songs than go within a country mile of the Milliband household; Labour has announced a tough new strategy. A strategy that will rock the very foundations of the commonly accepted 'appease the wealthy boomers' housing policies to their very bedrock.

Miliband is taking the political risk that the country is in the mood to give priority to housebuilding, both private and public, over the interests of those who lobby to halt expansion in their area.

He will say: "I want to send a clear message today: we will tackle those councils that block homes, those developers that hoard land and this government that fails to act on the worst housing shortages for a generation. We will stand up for homebuilders and first-time buyers."

Hopefully soon there will be a bit less of this:


Where shall we graze the pony today Rupert? Fnarr fnarr fnarr!

And a lot more of this:


Normal affordable homes for normal working families

N1AK

Welcome to Britain, a place where proposing taking 7 years to reach the required level of housing is seen as shocking. I can't see the conservatives trying to mimic this one purely because they're too busy trying to hold off UKIP in the areas that like this least.

My county may as well be called Toryshire so my vote matters about as much as an umbrella in a hurricane but I really can't see myself voting conservative at the next election (except to stop UKIP winning).

michaels

I am mostly in favour although I don' t think they will be able to build enough to affect prices, especially as somehow most of what is approved for building never seems to be where the homes are needed.

What won't be nice though if all those 'property spy' type people who have bought green belt land with an eye to making a windfall cash in - the perfect opportunity for a windfall tax IMHO.

IronWolf

Finally a decent policy that I would consider voting for.

Road_Hog

Yes, and when every spare bit of green land is concreted over and not a tiny bit of fresh is left, you'll all be happy that the country looks like a builder's yard.

Thrugelmir

Another sound bite without thought through substance. Not so easy to implement.

AndyGuil

Planning laws will make this policy difficult to actually implement. That and he risks losing a huge amount of voters so won't get into power to implement the policy either.

ruggedtoast

Road_Hog wrote: »

Yes, and when every spare bit of green land is concreted over and not a tiny bit of fresh is left, you'll all be happy that the country looks like a builder's yard.

Which would be terrible, if it weren't complete hogwash.

Less than 10% of England is even built on. London is surrounded by almost 100,000 hectares of (predominantly) brown field and green belt land, just 25% of which turning into houses would solve the capital's housing crisis.

Compulsory purchase of the toffs paddocks that they use for grazing would make a big difference as well.

http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2013/oct/25/green-belt-london-boris-johnson

kabayiri

Labour had, what, 13 years in power last time. I don't remember them supporting record numbers of houses being built then.

So what's changed? Have they suddenly become super competent?

Thrugelmir

kabayiri wrote: »

Labour had, what, 13 years in power last time. I don't remember them supporting record numbers of houses being built then.

So what's changed? Have they suddenly become super competent?

Labour need to establish some credible policies ahead of the election. As on the economy in general they are stuffed. Having said that sensible financial management ( austerity) wouldn't work.

spacey2012

The population is estimated to be heading for 85 million by 2020 and as high as 100 million by 2030.
The majority of this will be immigration from EU countries and awarded dependant status as those outside EU with dual nationality marry abroad.
There is nothing in present legislation that can be done to even influence, let alone control this.

Mr Milliband is indeed correct, people have voted for untethered immigration and given blessing by the ballot box, the country is going to have to start building now and not stop, we are going to need 30,000 homes a WEEK.

This is the side of immigration nobody wants to talk about, well hats off to milliband for at least attempting to tackle the oncoming storm.