12 Jun TORIES CLAIM GOVERNMENT IS IGNORING LOCAL CONCERNS ON NEW HOUSING SCHEMES
THE government is ignoring the concerns of local communities in a drive to build more homes, according to the Shadow Levelling-Up Secretary Kenin Hollinrake.
He told GB News: “Delivering houses isn’t just a numbers game. It’s also about pride of place. And what the government is doing effectively is hollowing out communities.
“It’s moving these housing targets from the urban areas into green field sites and green belt sites, which isn’t where the communities are now and at the same time as well the overriding protections that we put in place to make sure we deliver new housing alongside good nature conservation.
“We are Conservatives and we conserve. And that’s not what’s happening. Once you concrete it over, a badger set, those badgers are finished forever.”
He added: “During the last 10 years in office, we had record numbers of housing delivery and obviously 207,000 net additions, which is the highest for 50 years. At the same time, putting in place very important environmental protections, because people just don’t want to live in a house. They want to live in a home, and homes depend upon their communities, but also the balance with nature.
“You can do these two things together. We’re not against all the plans the government’s making. We’re not against a higher target for homes. We just want to make sure those homes are of high quality, not these soulless homes.
“What they’re looking to do, the way they’re going to do this, typical of a Labour government, they’re looking to completely override local opposition by saying that local elected councillors won’t have a vote on the majority of planning applications. We think that is totally wrong and will oppose those measures.”
Asked about the government dropping the Rwanda deportation scheme, he said: “It meant for the first time, we detained illegal migrants pending their removal to Rwanda, the first thing Labour do when they come into office is completely scrap those plans, which means more people are coming to the UK.
“The numbers are at record levels, and we’re seen as an easy touch by the international community that’s on the move. That can’t be the case.
“You’ve got to have a deterrence as well as making sure that we have legal migration under control, we’ve got to have that illegal migration under control as well. You cannot do that without that kind of Rwanda deterrent.”
