Labour’s plans to build thousands of new homes

[dnac]

Anyone else feeling dismayed at the plans announced today to build huge numbers of new homes on the “grey” belt? Why not just concrete over the UK? It’s not just the homes, it’s the infrastructure that will need to go with it that will almost certainly involve cutting down trees, spoiling natural habitats and losing more green space. Plus the boundary between grey and geeen belt will blur over time. Why can’t we put more effort into refurbishing existing properties (or just rebuilding on the same sites?). So much for refreshing, positive ideas from the new administration. Just more of the same ill thought out sound bites that make me despair for the future of the planet.

I totally agree. There’s so much brownfield land could be used. Or perhaps we could stop developers land banking and investors buying properties and leaving them to sit empty!! Honestly I despair!!

I've been thinking about this too. Our village is having an estate of 300 new houses. It seems that there are new houses going up on prime farm land at the moment, certainly where I am. No new schools or doctors surgeries, grid lock should a car break down etc. What about food security?

Yes I'm worried. One of the many reasons that I didn't vote for Labour.

Yep, this obsession with building more and more has to stop. We're creating a horrific environment to live in: everyone squished in like sardines, roads constantly loaded with traffic, nobody can get any space for peace and quiet, miles of compacted farmland and tarmac/concrete everywhere else creating huge flood risks, the disruption of constant construction work, no natural beauty left anywhere.

YANBU

There is no ‘housing crisis’.

There is an immigration crisis.

Our local town is already struggling wrt adequate services for all the new houses being built. The drs surgery (there’s just the one) already can’t cope and the population will increase by 20% in the next year. Not enough school places, no nhs dentist in the town, rubbish local transport and nothing vaguely helpful being provided by the developers. But don’t worry - there’ll be enough badly built houses that people don’t want to create some great new sink areas….

I would be a lot more supportive of increased building if the Right To Buy Act was repealed and social housing retained, Air B&Bs were more tightly regulated, and second homes/holiday homes taxed to fuckery.

The UK has long been short of houses. We need homes. Standard of build matters, location matters, but we do need homes.

Well there are no teachers or doctors either. , not full of hope that Labour will have ideas or solutions for this...

No doubt they’ll build on flood plains and sell them to unsuspecting buyers who won’t be able to insure the houses after they’ve been flooded a few times.

Same old lack of imagination and lack of vision.
Usual lack of accompanying infrastructure making it even more difficult to get a GP appointment.

Glad I didn’t vote labour

This.

I feel the same. We need to use existing housing more efficiently.

No there isn’t - there’s a second home ownership crisis. There should be measures to financially deter ownership of multiple homes.

You don’t think net migration of 800,000 a year on a relatively small island is an issue?

It should be law that everyone 350 houses that go up a new doctors surgery needs to be built too. Every 700 houses that go up a new school. We have lots of houses going up but no infrastructure!!

We need more homes but not poorly built private ones that will be snapped up by landlords. We need council housing. Be like Vienna.

If the previous powers to be had allowed a natural spread of villages and towns, small 10,15,20 homes here and there over the last 15 years we wouldn't have these huge ugly estates.

I'm saying this with a vested interest as I own land but we only want to build 2 -3 homes, and it's been 10+ years of "no" and yet the big developers can build 1,000s down the road from us.

The reason fur the "no" is because it's not a big enough development?

So I do hope the new laws will allow the smaller developments to happen and see villages grow sustainably.

I'm delighted by the idea of building more homes. The uk needs many more modern well insulated homes in the locations that people want to live in. And it is better for the environment to have people live near their work and commute less.

It’s absolutely mental. The green belt is not suitable affordable housing. It’s some of the most sought after real estate in the country and it has the price tag to match. It’s also incredible disconnected. Public transport dismal. I am in the midlands and can get into central London on a train faster than my parents in a greenbelt commuter village INSIDE the m25.

Im not quite sure why they are fixated on this idea. You could increase density in London and build up. It’s a very non developed city density/ height wise. You could also build anywhere else in the U.K.

I don’t get what the appeal is.

👏👏👏

Stop with the false narrative that immigration is creating homelessness and is behind the housing crisis. It's a much bigger systemic problem than that.

It’s a terrible policy and I think many Labour voters weren’t aware of it. Glad I didn’t vote for them !

With a rapidly aging population, who do you suggest does the jobs to keep society going without immigration? People like to retire around age 60 and are expected to live for 20-30 years after that. Please do enlighten us on how that can continue without immigration.

Unless we ban people from retiring and make it compulsory for them to kill themselves at age 80, so society can continue?

Developers don’t want to build on brown field sites, it’s too expensive, clearing the land, contaminate cleaning etc, it’s much easier and cheaper to build on a nice clean untouched lush green field and people want family homes with gardens and parking, developers don’t tend to build them on the site of the old disused commercial property, the brown field areas don’t generally fit the brief of nice family home on the edge of a market town or village which are the most profitable for developers to build.