King’s Speech 2024: Labour should deliver on brownfield-first commitment
In a King’s Speech laden with proposed bills, we ask Labour to deliver on its commitments to a brownfield-first approach to housebuilding and ensure a renewables strategy that prioritises solar on rooftops.
On the Planning and Infrastructure Bill
We welcome Labour’s ambition to build the homes we urgently need. However, they should start with the 1.2 million new homes that could be built on shovel-ready brownfield sites in England alone.
The Green Belt is the countryside next door for 30 million people in the UK and has huge benefits for food security, physical and mental health, and nature restoration. We want to see protections for it maintained in the policy framework.
New homes on the Green Belt have rarely been genuinely affordable and create car-dependent communities far from public transport networks and other essential infrastructure.
We also would like to see ambitious targets in policy for genuinely affordable and social homes close to where people already live, work and go to school. The definition of ‘affordable’ housing should be changed to reflect local incomes rather than market rates.
The government should deliver a strategic land use framework that makes the best use of our finite supply of land and safeguards the Green Belt for future generations.
We support Labour’s focus on plan-led development. We would like to see Local Plans include ambitious net zero and environmental targets.
Transition to clean energy
The climate emergency is the biggest threat facing our countryside. We need a rapid transition to renewables, starting with our roofs.
Properly planned onshore wind has an important role to play in the urgent decarbonisation of our energy system. New onshore wind developments should be strategically located away from sensitive landscapes and involve local communities in a transparent engagement process.
We would like to see the government support onshore wind in cases where landscape sensitivity is considered and proposals have the backing of the local community. If the will is there, we can protect our valued landscapes and meet our nation’s energy needs at the same time.
Many communities may wish to host onshore wind farms. We need to back them by offering community ownership as standard.