Angela Rayner accused of unleashing a 'charter for destruction of British countryside'
EXCLUSIVE: Tory MP Greg Smith has given his verdict on Labour's first month in Government - and he did not hold back.
Angela Rayner is on course to unleash a “charter for the destruction of the British countryside”, a Tory MP has warned.
Labour this week set out its housing plans for the UK vowing to “get Britain building again”, with Ms Rayner saying in the Commons: “Delivering economic growth is our number one mission.”
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government said housing targets watered down under the Tories would become mandatory.
She also set out plans to make it easier to build on the so-called “grey belt” – areas which will be reclassified from low-quality green belt land.
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But Greg Smith, the Conservative MP for Mid-Bucks, claimed Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy was planning on “reintroducing full-on socialist-style housing targets that will hammer local councils up and down the land”.
Writing for the Daily Express, he said: “As we edge closer to a whole month of Labour government, the horror show continues at pace.
“This week we have witnessed multiple spectacles in the House of Commons from the Chancellor's screeching U-turn on whether she knew the true position of the nation's finances to Angela Rayner's anticipated unveiling of a charter for the destruction of the British countryside.”
Under the Labour policy, English councils will have to take Government-set housing targets into account when allocating land over the long term.
There will also be a recalculation of the housing targets meaning some urban areas will have to build fewer homes than before with the 35% “uplift” for towns and cities axed.
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The Conservatives have argued Labour’s decision to overhaul the planning system would force more suburban, typically Tory-voting, areas to take housing from urban, typically Labour-voting, areas.
Mr Smith, whose constituency is largely rural, claimed Ms Rayner’s plans to overhaul the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) and “delete protections for land used in food production” amounted to the “destruction of our countryside”.
He said: “This will undoubtedly challenge our national food security and devastate rural communities like the one I am fortunate enough to represent in Buckinghamshire.”
Anna Cartledge, legal planning partner at law firm Shakespeare Martineau, warned Ms Rayner’s housing plans “may quickly prove toothless”.
She said: “Planning policy in the UK has remained stagnant for years and close attention has been desperately needed.
“Increasing housing targets is one thing, but it will be critical that local planning authorities are provided adequate support to manage the updated policy process, or any new plans will fall completely flat.
“Local authorities will also be required to review greenbelt protections that fall within their remit, with Angela Rayner referring to a ‘more strategic system for Green Belt release’.
“This controversial area may quickly prove toothless as any review will remain at a local level and could simply involve the removal of the previous amendment from December 2023, which stated that reviewing or altering greenbelt boundaries was optional to allow for building in exceptional circumstances as opposed to a matter of course.
“Importantly, Rayner made it clear that where development does occur within the Green Belt, there will be ‘golden rules’ in place; including the provision of 50% affordable housing with a focus on social rented tenure.”
