· Mike Prendergast warns against giving Labour a blank cheque to carry out their plans to concrete over the Green Belt in West Lancashire – ruining precious green spaces.
· This warning comes as Labour briefed The Sunday Times that their assault on the Green Belt will happen ‘within days’ of a Labour government – forcing councils to reclassify land and build on green spaces, irrespective of local objections.
· Mike Prendergast stresses that only Conservatives will build the right homes in the right places and help families onto the housing ladder with tax cuts on your first home.
Mike Prendergast is warning against giving Labour a blank cheque to concrete over the Green Belt in West Lancashire.
In a briefing to The Sunday Times, Labour have announced that from ‘day one’ they would begin an all-out assault on the green belt.
Today the Conservatives have released new analysis which shows the constituencies most at risk from Labour’s plans to concrete over the green belt.
Labour have pledged to publish a draft national planning policy framework; this would likely involve imposing ‘top down’ targets to ensure that councils are required to build a certain number of homes, irrespective of local support for them. Labour’s briefing also confirmed they would ‘review the green belt’.
Keir Starmer is already committed to ‘bulldoze’ national planning law and is expected to reclassify land protected as ‘green belt’ land – opening the door to concreting over the green belt without giving communities a say. These comments come just weeks after a Labour official claimed Labour would ‘flatten the whole green belt’.
Labour’s housebuilding assault is twofold. Not only have Labour promised to rip up the green belt, but they have also admitted first-time buyers will pay more Stamp Duty under Labour’s First-Time Buyers Tax. This means Labour will not only be building homes without local support, but they would be taxing families more who want to buy them.
The Conservatives have delivered 2.5 million homes since 2010 and are committed to building another 1.6 million over the next Parliament. These homes will be built in the right places, unlocking brownfield sites first to protect the green belt.
Commenting, Mike Prendergast said:
“Your vote on 4 July will determine if the Green Belt across West Lancashire is protected by the Conservatives of concreted over by Labour.
“Over 88% of West Lancashire is classed as Green Belt, with some of the most productive and high yielding farmland in the North West. The last Labour Local Plan for the area was to build around 16,000 homes on many of our green spaces. This was not to meet the needs of West Lancashire to meet the needs of other nearby Labour councils.
We need a housing plan for West Lancashire that is right for our area, utilising brownfield sites and to meet local needs. We must listen to local views on this important issue.
“If Labour are given a blank cheque, Keir Starmer has made clear his assault on the Green Belt will happen within days of their election – stripping local people in West Lancashire of their say over where houses are built in our area.
“We must not surrender our Green Belt to Labour, only the Conservatives will build the right homes in the right places and help families onto the housing ladder with tax cuts on your first home.”
