James Archer promises to fight the Kirk Hallam Green Belt Grab
I was at the debate last autumn where the Young Liberals group forced an amendment which kept our ambitious target to build 380,000 houses a year (1). I saw many impassioned speeches from young (and not so young) people who were failing to get on the housing ladder due to the cost of housing and the lack of affordable housing being built.
There were also as many speeches from Lib Dem Councillors and Campaigners across the country sharing their own experience of housing targets imposed from above, that have given developers, not local people, the overriding say on where and which housing should be built. Including those expressing their frustration that developers could undermine targets by not building on less profitable brown field sites, to then use the fact that the target had not been met, to propose using more profitable greenfield sites, against the expressed wishes of local people.
If the Liberal Democrats were in government we would do things in a Liberal Democrat way, as we do in the many councils we run across the country. Councils like Eastleigh which have delivered significant numbers of houses, of the type people want in the places people want them. And because of this Liberal Democrat way, building the housing strategy from the bottom up, with the consent of local people.
It is clear the Kirk Hallam development does not have the consent of local people, it is not going to deliver the social and affordable houses that Erewash needs and it will permanently erode an important part the precious green belt. It is clearly morally and democratically wrong.
The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to ending the housing crisis in a fair and properly democratic way. And if elected I promise to fight this development and push the government of whatever colour to listen to local people in all their decisions on where to build housing.
- Lib Dem members defy leadership on housing target, BBC News, 25 Sept 2023, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66917374