BROMSGROVE MP Sajid Javid has moved to clarify the position on the Government’s ‘biggest house-building plan since the 1970s’ after residents contacted The Standard fearing for the future of the town’s green belt.
It looked like the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government was on a collision course with his constituents after his speech at this week’s Conservative Party Conference.
In it he spoke about housing for everyone ‘not just the privileged few’, adding the Government would be doubling the housing budget to £20billion over the next five years.
He outlined housing issues, including 500,000 households in the UK containing at least one adult who said they wanted to own their own home but could not afford it.
“I’m not afraid to stand up and say this country has not built enough homes – we’ve got to be honest about it.
“In the last year of full records, we managed to deliver more than 170,000 properties across England. It’s not a bad number but it’s far fewer than we need.
“Everyone agrees we need to build more homes. But too many of us object to them being built next to us.
“We’ve got to change that attitude.”
He added it was ‘time to stop sitting on landbanks, delaying buildout’, adding ‘the homebuyers must come first’.
And he revealed a Housing White Paper would be published later this year outlining ‘significant housebuilding measures’ towards an ambition of a million new homes by 2020.
Following the rousing address, we were contacted amidst concerns about where these houses would go and calls for assurances that Mr Javid would protect Bromsgrove’s green belt – one of three pledges on his 2010 election literature.
In the leaflet he stated he would ‘oppose thousands of new homes on our greenbelt’ and ‘fight to end centrally-imposed top down planning and give local people a real say’.
The chairman of Bentley Pauncefoot Parish Council, Andy Boss, said he had already been contacted by many parishoners about the speech who were concerned about the area’s green belt being built on.
“We want assurances that he will do what he said he was going to do in 2010 election leaflet and help protect Bromsgrove’s greenbelt.
“There are a lot of Conservatives in the rural areas who would have voted for him because of that pledge.”
Coun Boss said the Government should not be building on the green belt until every disused building and brownfield site had been used.
“The reason these developers want to build on places like Bentley is because they can get more money for the properties – they are purely thinking about profit.
“When you go on the train through north Birmingham and Wolverhampton, there are loads of brownfield sites that are not being used and they have the road and rail links in place.
“Here we just do not have the infrastructure and too much traffic and speeding through villages is already an issue.”
But, in response, Mr Javid said: “Housing is an issue which affects communities in all regions across the UK.
“That’s why I’ve announced new steps to get Britain building.
“But of course, where houses are built must be handled sensitively and decisions will continue to be made with local authorities and residents.”
