Paul Goodman writes:
There are few consolations for the Opposition party in finding it hard to get publicity. But one of them, as Harry Phibbs pointed out recently about Labour and housing, is that few spot your U-turns.
The Government’s own record on housing is less than glorious. So some will say that Michael Gove’s letter below to Keir Starmer on the subject is pots and kettles. All the same, the contents are well worth assimilating.
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Wednesday May 17 2023
“Dear Sir Keir,
I have seen your comments reported by The Times newspaper today saying you will ‘allow more homes on the green belt’.
I understand that you may have changed your view on housing, as you have on many of your other policies, but I have a number of questions about your housing policies:
- Your Shadow Cabinet colleagues with constituencies in England regularly oppose development, including in their own areas. At the last count more than three quarters of them had been blockers not builders. Is this not a case of do as I say but not as I do?
- Your Shadow Housing Secretary, Lisa Nandy, opposed building on the Green Belt in her own constituency. Has she changed her mind, and does she agree with your new policy?
- The Labour Party’s official Twitter account tweeted a graphic saying ‘Local people…should decide what’s best for where they live’, and asking ‘Do you want developers building on your green spaces without your say?’ It is available online. Is this still Labour’s policy?
- Since being Labour Leader, you sponsored a debate in the Commons saying ‘planning works best when developers and the local community work together to shape local areas and deliver necessary new homes’. You went on to call ‘on the Government to protect the right of communities to object to individual planning applications’. Is this still your view?
- Your former shadow Housing Secretary, Steve Reed, repeatedly attacked our proposed planning reforms as a ‘developer’s charter’. Are you now not calling for an approach which he previously opposed?
- In your interview with The Times you say ‘give local authorities, local areas more power to decide where it [ie housing] will be and you alleviate that problem’. How is that different from what the Government has already consulted on earlier this year?
- Last month, your Shadow Housing Secretary, Lisa Nandy, promised to ‘reintroduce requirements for local areas to make sure enough homes are being built’. But in your interview in the Times you said ‘it’s important for local areas…to decide where housing is going to be’. Which approach is your actual policy?
- This morning, your shadow Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, told Sky News that the Government’s target of 300,000 was ‘arbitrary’ and then said there is ‘no point of having an arbitrary target plucked out of the air’. Does this mean Labour is not committed to building 300,000 new homes a year?
- Last week, the Financial Times reported ‘Labour to clamp down on foreign buyers of UK properties’. So is it your policy to undermine British citizenship by allowing foreigners to vote, but prevent them from buying a property, or have you also changed your mind on that?
- The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has promised to ‘continue to oppose building on the Green Belt, which is as important today as it was when it was created’. Does he agree with this policy?
More generally, your party’s approach to housing has been quite confused:
- Yesterday, the Financial Times reported you opposed rent controls, saying you would ‘reject’ calls for a rent freeze. But last month, your fellow MP in Camden, Tulip Siddiq, who is a shadow Treasury Minister, called on me to ‘introduce a rent freeze in England’. Does Tulip Siddiq agree with your policy?
- Turning to the Right to Buy, Lisa Nandy has told the BBC she has ‘always believed in the Right to Buy and the right to buy your own home’ despite Tulip Siddiq calling it into question by asking what assessment I have made of the ‘impact of the Right to Buy Scheme on the availability of council homes’. Do you back the Right to Buy?
- Your Shadow Housing Secretary, Lisa Nandy, told Labour Conference last year that Labour’s mantra was ‘council housing, council housing, council housing’. Since then, neither you nor she has mentioned the phrase in the House of Commons. Is it still your party’s mantra?
- Lisa Nandy has committed to making social housing the ‘second largest tenure’ – a commitment which will cost billions of pounds. Is this an unfunded spending commitment?
I look forward to receiving your reply on these matters, and to my letter of 15 May regarding your policies on elections, including lowering the voting age.
Yours,
The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath”