Housing Targets: Planning System

Taiwo Owatemi Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[Dehenna Davison]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that. I had the pleasure of briefly visiting her constituency this morning and would be grateful for the opportunity to sit down with her and discuss this further, given the local nuances involved.

The house building figures we have seen in recent years have defied expectation. It is no secret that reaching 300,000 homes a year has been an uphill challenge. Our focus in Government is on accelerating delivery so that we can make the dream of home ownership a reality for more people.

[Taiwo Owatemi (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

We would all like the dream of home ownership to be a reality. In my constituency, one of the biggest concerns of residents is that, because the local authority is trying to meet the housing target that has been put on them, they are losing their green spaces, such as Coundon Wedge. This is having a considerable impact on the wellbeing of so many people who use green spaces like that. It would be great to hear whether the Minister would meet with me to look at Coventry’s figures, because currently the Office for National Statistics projections are completely off the mark.

[Dehenna Davison]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for raising those concerns about her constituency. I would certainly be willing to sit down with her and discuss this further, although it might be worth me asking my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for South East Cambridgeshire instead, given that this sits more closely within her brief.

Back on house building, I said that it is important that we build the numbers, but crucially, and as I think today’s debate has highlighted, it is also about making sure that the homes are being built in the places where they are most needed—the places where people want to live and the places where people want to work. We want these decisions about homes to be driven locally, and we want to get more local plans in place to deliver the homes we need, and we will set out our approach on planning for housing in due course.

I know I am preaching to the converted when it comes to the need to modernise our planning system, and I think all MPs understand and get that we need a planning regime that is fit for 2022. That was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for South West Hertfordshire (Mr Mohindra), who is no longer in his place, but who spoke about changes in working patterns as a result of the pandemic and how that should be reflected in the planning system. I will certainly raise that point with the Minister for Housing when I see her.

I also understand that Members are frustrated—they are right to be frustrated—that this has been under discussion not just for months, but for years. We need more houses, and that obviously brings with it an obligation on us in Government to be frank and straight with people that building more houses has implications, both positive and sometimes negative. In some places, it will cause tension, and in some places, it will be a source of relief, but it is our job to be willing to have that dialogue, regardless of how difficult it may be. I am not sure that Governments of all colours have always approached these kinds of conversations in the most productive way. The inconvenient truth is that, for the best part of two decades, demand has outstripped the supply of homes.