Nearly 50 MPs have rebelled against Rishi Sunak and housing secretary, Michael Gove, in a bid to end local housing targets for councils.
The amendment put forth by former cabinet minister, Theresa Villiers, would see housing targets become advisory rather than mandatory, and currently has the backing of 46 MPs.
A vote on the bill was set to take place on Monday (28/11) but has now been pulled due to the rebel MPs’ amendment, with the government set to address their concerns with further conversations.
As well as scrapping mandatory targets, the amendment would also do away with the five-year land supply rule, which permits developers to submit applications for land that hasn’t been allocated for housebuilding if there have not been enough sites allocated to provide five years’ worth of housing.
While the amendment has sizeable support from MPs, most notably Damian Green, Priti Patel, Esther McVey, Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling, critics fear that it would exacerbate the housing crisis and lack of affordable homes.
Former housing secretary, Simon Clarke, said on Twitter that “it’s un-Conservative to not build homes”, adding that: “We are meant to be the party of opportunity, and we are pulling up the ladder for everyone under 40.”
“We also need to recognise the fundamental inter-generational unfairness we will be worsening and perpetuating if we wreck what are already too low levels of housebuilding in this country. Economically and socially it would be disastrous. Politically it would be insane.”
Robert Colvile, director of the CPS think tank, believes that the amendment could cut the number of homes being built by as much as 40%, if not more as the recession and rising interest rate are already affecting the industry.
He wrote in The Times: “The actual effect would be to enshrine nimbyism as the governing principle of British society – to snap the levers that force councils to build, and leave every proposed development at the mercy of the propertied and privileged.”
Source: Show House News
