Government has lost its way on housing policy

During an Opposition Day Debate on Housing Policy yesterday Anne Main raised the welcome defeat of the Regional Spatial Strategy Housing Targets by St Albans District Council.

During an Opposition Day Debate on Housing Policy yesterday, Anne Main, MP for St Albans, drew the Minister's attention to the welcome defeat of the Regional Spatial Strategy Housing Targets by St Albans District Council.

During the debate, Anne said:

"St Albans has successfully defeated the Government's regional spatial strategy on targets. I welcome that, as local people should decide how many homes there should be and where they should be placed. It is not just a question of having more and more homes: we need to put the infrastructure in place first, and then give local people the power to make decisions. I should have thought that she would welcome that, and not say that we need more houses regardless of what local people want."

Upon leaving the chamber, Anne said:"This debate was wide ranging, but too often the Government appears to lose sight of the fact that local people want a say over how many houses and what sort of houses are being built in an area. I firmly support any efforts to ensure that we do not end up being joined up to neighbouring communities with a sprawl all over our Green Belt.

My job is to speak up for St Albans. I believe in praising Councils when they get it right, as well as criticising them when they get it wrong, which is why I was pleased to welcome the defeat of the Government's targets by a joint challenge from St Albans District and Herts County Councils, whilst in the same debate chiding a Liberal Democrat front bencher who was lecturing the Government about bringing empty dwellings back into use when we still have no action by our local council on the homes surrounding the Tesco site in St Albans. I am pleased they got it right on the defeat of the housing totals and I hope St Albans District Council will soon take action over the empty homes in London Road and surrounding area.

But this Government gets it all wrong. We need infrastructure before expansion and until we get that we should not be relentlessly building thousands more houses without the backup of schools, hospitals, roads and facilities to support them.""