What Labour’s housing plans mean for our local area

Back in March I warned in a letter to the local paper that the biggest threat to Mersea and Pyefleet villages came from Keir Starmer’s “promise” to the previous October’s Labour conference to “bulldoze through” the planning laws so that local councils will no longer be able to stop major housing developments.
So, what’s happened since then? Well unfortunately, since the general election was called that threat has got MUCH worse for 3 reasons:

1. HOW LABOUR WILL FUND ITS SPENDING PLEDGES: Labour’s spending pledges mean there is a £38.5 billion ‘black hole’ in their budget. When Conservatives pointed out that could mean tax rises of £2,094 for every family, Labour responded by claiming it wouldn’t as they planned to turbo-charge the economy by changing the planning laws to allow developers to rapidly build 1.5 million new houses. In other words. Labour’s whole strategy to fix the black hole in its finances is to allow large scale housing developments – which local councils will have almost no power to stop. (In contrast, the Conservative Party have said new houses should be mainly built on brownfield sites in cities. And they will fund the things promised in their manifesto by getting in inflation down to the normal level of 2% (down from over 10% in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine) which will reduce the amount of interest the government has to pay on the huge debt the country built up during the pandemic: STOP PRESS on 19 June inflation dropped to 2% - THE PLAN IS WORKING!)
2. THE CANDIDATES: While Sir Bernard Jenkin has strongly opposed major housing developments in our area – see his video The Labour candidate is a housing specialist for a left leaning think tank – who fully supports the Labour Party’s housing plans and has said he wants to see thousands more homes in this area (residents in the north of the constituency around West Bergholt, Lawford and Manningtree are also up in arms – as he is the only candidate who has refused to sign the pledge to oppose huge pylons being routed across their beautiful part of North Essex – as it national Labour Party policy to have them. In contrast, Sir Bernard Jenkin as the local MP has for several years been leading the campaign against the pylons across East Anglia)
3. WILL FARMERS BE FORCED TO SELL FARMLAND? The Labour Party have refused to rule out forcing farmers to pay either inheritance tax or capital gains tax when farmers pass their farm onto one of their children. This could have a hugely damaging impact on the local environment – as if they have to sell some of their land to pay inheritance tax – it is likely to be brought up by house building speculators. The first things they will do is rip up the hedgerows – as they are more likely to get planning permission without them. This would be an absolute disaster for biodiversity as many of these hedgerows have been kept by farmers for centuries – and the older a hedgerow is – the more species it provides a habitat for.

 
So, although Labour claims it will be a “green” government – this doesn’t seem to apply to the local area. You can have all the low flush loos you like, put solar panels on every house, even call it an eco-town if you like – but nothing can disguise the fact that concreting over the countryside with huge housing developments will be an environmental disaster.

What all this means is all the local sites developers have been trying for years to get planning permission on for major housing developments – and quite possibly many others - will now be much more likely to be built on.

That’s why you should vote for Sir Bernard Jenkin on Thursday.