Climbdown on housing target after Tories rebel
A TORY rebellion over a pledge to build 300,000 homes a year forced the Government into a major climbdown over a flagship Bill last night.
At least 47 backbench MPs said they would back an amendment to ditch top-down housing targets set out in the party’s 2019 election manifesto.
Yesterday Housing Secretary Michael Gove postponed a debate on the Bill to give the Government more time to win over backbenchers and avert Rishi Sunak’s first parliamentary defeat.
The rebellion was led by former environment secretary Theresa Villiers, who put forward 21 changes to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. They included proposals to scrap the housing targets and enshrine the right for individuals to object to planning applications in law.
Among the rebels were heavyweights including former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former Cabinet ministers Chris Grayling, Priti Patel and Damian Green.
The target to build 300,000 houses a year by the mid-2020s aimed to push councils into overcoming local resistance to new homes and make it easier for young people to get on to the housing ladder.
Only 172,720 homes were completed in the year to June 2022, according to official data.
Government sources insisted yesterday Mr Sunak was committed to the 300,000 target and that the vote on the bill, initially scheduled for Monday, would still go ahead before Christmas. But rebel leaders said the ‘excessive’ target was leading to overdevelopment, and upending the planning process by taking power away from local people.
MPs fear the reforms will threaten dozens of Conservative seats in the south of England. Senior Tories blamed housing reforms for a shock defeat in the safe Buckinghamshire seat of Chesham and Amersham in a by-election last year.
Miss Villiers, who represents Chipping Barnet on the outskirts of London, said: ‘This is a significant victory for the backbenches. It shows that ministers know that they need to listen to us and they need more time to come up with a solution.’
But former housing secretary Simon Clarke, whose seat is in Middlesbrough, said: ‘I understand totally how inappropriate development has poisoned the debate on new homes in constituencies like Chipping Barnet, but I do not believe the abandonment of all housing targets is the right response.’
Robert Colville, director of the Thatcherite Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said the effect of the amendment ‘would be to enshrine Nimbyism as the governing principle of British society’.
He added: ‘This may not matter to those who already own, but it matters a very great deal to their children and grandchildren.’
The Tories have a majority of 69, suggesting the current level of opposition would be more than enough to effect a defeat.
A Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities source said: ‘We will continue to engage constructively with colleagues over the next few weeks to ensure we build more of the right homes in the right places.’
‘A significant victory for the backbenches’