The West of England metro mayor has criticised the Government for imposing “high housing numbers” on the region with demands for up to 105,000 new homes over the next 20 years.
Labour’s Dan Norris says Whitehall is “continuing to force our hand using a system that’s already failed” the area, which is in the middle of producing a blueprint for where people will live, work and play in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset up to 2041.
The regional mayor, who leads the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), has hit back after South Gloucestershire Council leader Cllr Toby Savage claimed Mr Norris was freezing him out of vital talks and refusing his input into the Spatial Development Strategy (SDS).
READ MORE: Bristol housing: 'Secrecy' over plan for tens of thousands of new homes in region
Cllr Savage claimed this “mushroom farming approach” to preparing the document “in darkness and in secrecy” could have disastrous consequences, with the prospect of tens of thousands of homes being “foisted” on the district without the necessary infrastructure to support them because council leaders had not been involved.
But Mr Norris says local Tories should instead be directing their criticism at their own party for decisions made in Westminster, which he says have hamstrung the way the blueprint is produced.
He said: “The minimum number of houses we must build and the processes that must be followed for the Spatial Development Strategy are set in stone by the current Conservative Government.
“The next Labour Government will ensure we build more affordable homes in places where they are needed and wanted, like parts of Bristol, while also protecting our irreplaceable countryside in areas like South Gloucestershire and North East Somerset too.
“With today's huge divisions among Conservatives, I can see why local Tory councillors are reluctant to criticise their own fractured Government for imposing high local housing numbers and poor processes on us.
“However, the blunt truth is, this Tory Government is continuing to force our hand using a system that's already failed our region and does not respect the wonderful range, needs, and diversity of our communities."
The SDS document will outline broad locations for houses and flats – understood to be between 85,000 and 105,000, depending on how the Government calculates what is needed – and is due to be published this spring to go out to consultation and then public examination by planning inspectors next year.
The requirement for the SDS is because of the failure of its predecessor, the Joint Spatial Plan, which government officials rejected in 2019, telling the four local authorities behind it, including North Somerset, to go back to the drawing board.
The planning inspectors said they had “significant concerns” about fundamental aspects of the plan, primarily how the 12 main locations for new housing developments were selected, and were not convinced the councils had considered “reasonable alternatives”.
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