At the general election, one of my four priorities for the people of Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton was to fight for decent homes for local people.
Our new Labour government is hitting the ground running in our first week in office with the Chancellor announcing how we are going to reform planning to ensure we build the 1.5 million new homes over this parliament we pledged to build at the general election.
We will work with communities to utilise brownfield sites and distinguish between the green belt which protects us from urban sprawl, the countryside which makes up our world-class landscapes, and the ‘grey belt’ which includes disused car parks and other areas which local people want to be developed.
Brownfield and ‘grey belt’ sites must be where we solve our housing crisis and rebuild national infrastructure to reignite sustained economic growth to boost living standards and allow us to properly fund our vital public services. By contrast, green belt land and our countryside must be protected and preserved. In this way, work will be done with communities, not done to communities.
I discussed the new government’s initial work to review the National Planning Policy Framework with Kay Burley on Sky News yesterday morning.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 