Guido has been tracking Labour MPs who talk a big game on growth but privately put up strong NIMBY opposition to growth projects. Twas ever thus…
Liz Truss’ replacement Terry Jermy recently opposed the expansion of a pig and poultry farm in Methwold, Norfolk worth tens of millions in local job growth. Now he’s at it again…
Jermy has teamed up with Tory Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman to oppose the installation of solar farms, making personal representations to Ed Miliband to complain about plans for a local 4,000 acre solar development – large enough to power 363,000 homes. The Starmerite MP says he told Miliband, who has prioritised approval of solar developments, that “renewable energy does not fall evenly across the country – in Norfolk we are flat – it’s easy to get solar panels into the ground. We are disproportionately being impacted by solar farms.” What does NIMBY stand for again…
This intervention comes as Labour figures fight like rats in a sack following Tony Blair’s remarkable intervention against Net Zero policies yesterday. DEFRA secretary and close Morgan McSweeney ally Steve Reed backed the former PM’s sentiment this morning. Miliband’s opponents are coming out of the woodwork – should set hares running ahead of a reshuffle after the Spending Review…
Rother Valley Labour MP Jake Richards has been keen to talk about being part of a party that’s getting Britain building. He’s a proud member of the Labour Growth Group, even signed a letter to Keir Starmer last July urging him to defy NIMBYs and embrace a planning “revolution.” If only that enthusiasm extended to his own backyard…
Richards – the nepo-baby son of a former New Statesman political editor Steve Richards – has objected to every development proposal in his own constituency. Keen to keep the local NIMBY brigade onside, he’s opposed plans for hundreds of new homes in his own village, moaning on Facebook about overdevelopment, traffic, green space, and even light pollution. He declared:
“I do not support these plans and will try my utmost to protect Hellaby… the amount of traffic and noise it would cause is not acceptable.”
He also continually expressed his “concerns” over plans for a solar farm in Whitestone – despite it being a Nationally Significant Infrastructure project – and wrote to Rotherham Council objecting to a quarry project, citing the usual traffic and environmental excuses. If Starmer wants to take on the blockers he should probably start with his own backbenches…
Reeves is on a long morning media round defending her growth projects reset speech yesterday. She was asked on BBC Breakfast why she previously opposed the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport in 2020. She said at the time that expansion would:
“significantly increase air and noise pollution in the area around the airport and undermine vital efforts to ensure that Leeds upholds its commitment to become a carbon neutral city by 2030. There is also the risk that a potential increase in passengers…would exacerbate existing issues with traffic congestion and vehicle emissions. With the ongoing climate emergency, we need to invest in alternative carbon-friendly modes of transport which cause less damage to our environment.”
Reeves’ justification for her NIMBY position is a little different now:
“So that was in the pandemic when people weren’t really flying a lot has changed since then including how aeroplanes fly and including sustainable aviation fuel and as that evidence changes I think it is right to look again at airport expansion… if plans came forward again at Leeds Bradford I would support expansion but during the pandemic people weren’t flying.”
The Chancellor also said Heathrow’s expansion would be completed by 2035. Did she think the pandemic would go on for a decade?
A decade is highly ambitious – Reeves says the government expects a planning application from Heathrow this summer and a Development Consent Order to come within the Parliament thanks to relaxed planning rules. Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary warns the public not to expect planes to fly until 2050 thanks to the threat of constant protests and legal filings. The blockers do have a way with these things…
Fresh-faced Labour MP Chris Bloore is putting his best foot forward to cling on to his wafer-thin 789-vote majority in Redditch, playing the NIMBY card to keep locals sweet. The council is fuming over a developer’s proposal to build 214 homes, including 66 affordable homes—50 of which would be social housing aimed at helping those most in need – on a redundant part a golf club. Given the council’s record of delivering just 9% of required affordable housing in recent years, you’d think it’d would be a no-brainer…
But no. Bloore turned up to a planning inquiry today to loudly oppose the project, despite promising to tackle “housing challenges” in the area. His excuses for blocking the development:
After listing the reasons why the affordable houses should not be built, Bloore finishes strong:
“I can attest there is no one in this room who is more pro-affordable housing than me.”
Not exactly in line with Labour’s pledge to “back builders not blockers”…
Labour is today releasing its much-hyped new National Planning Policy Framework – Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has the morning round to drum up enthusiasm. And stave off Nimby rage…
Pennycook on Sky News took pains to make clear there was no annual target for housebuilding – just 1.5 million homes over the course of the parliament. He says the Tories have put housebuilding in a “trough” which means construction will be skewed towards the end of the next five years and won’t sit at 300,000 annually. You could set a different target for each year…
The minister also couldn’t say where migrants would be housed if not in those new homes, especially as there are 2.5 million projected to come in legally. Now that Labour can’t be tracked on the progress of its “milestone” each year it is already making excuses for potential failure. Pennycook says “in the later years of this parliament we will be on a trajectory of of much higher housing numbers if all of our reforms are accepted, if they work, if they start to bid in.” Now Starmer loves Whitehall again Downing Street is running out of its stock of people to blame…
Over the weekend, Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner won applause from YIMBYs across the board when she stated newts should not be more protected than people who need housing. She tore into the building blockers clinging to archaic EU habitat laws, declaring the government “won’t accept this nonsense anymore”…
A punchy soundbite from Rayner, though so far it’s all talk and no action. Rayner’s department (HCLG) is currently resisting a Supreme Court appeal aimed at unblocking the construction of 650 new homes in Somerset. A project stalled by those very nutrient neutrality rules she slammed just days earlier….
Meanwhile, the Home Builders Federation argues the current issue is blocking 44,000 new homes that already have planning permission. Unsurprisingly, environmental campaigners are backing the Local Government, claiming it’s right to halt developments near a protected site. The newts may not need to fear the wrath of Rayner after all…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”