Deputy Labour leader, Angela Rayner, will set out the party’s promise to start building homes on new town sites within its first year of power, should it be elected.
The speech will outline Labour’s commitment to tackling the housing crisis and set a deadline of the end of the first term for homes to be built.
Rayner will tell the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum in Leeds that the party will strongly support private developers that provide high-quality, affordable housing.
The plan to build new towns echoes those created by Clement Atlee’s government following the Second World War and forms part of a wider commitment to creating 1.5million new homes during the first term in office.
To facilitate the plan, Rayner would create a new towns taskforce of independent experts who would highlight potential sites that would deliver homes in areas of high demand while also factoring in the prospect of jobs, good transport infrastructure and local views.
Rayner’s speech is also expected to announce a minimum of 40% affordable for developments delivered through its New Towns policy.
In excerpts of Rayner’s speech released in advance, the shadow housing and levelling up secretary said that the plan will open up plenty of opportunities for responsible developers, but warns that others will have to up their game or face the consequences.
The speech read: “Developers who deliver on their obligations to build high-quality, well-designed and sustainable affordable housing, with green spaces and transport links and schools and GPs’ surgeries nearby, will experience a new dawn under Labour.”
“But those who have wriggled out of their responsibilities for too long will be robustly held to account.”
“Labour’s towns of the future will be built on the foundations of our past. The post-war period taught us that when the government plays a strategic role in housebuilding, we can turbo-charge growth to the benefit of working people across Britain.”
