Kerry McCarthy Labour MP for Bristol East
In this month’s Fishponds Voice, I wrote about the housing crisis, and the inescapable fact that If we want to tackle homelessness, poverty and inequality in Bristol, we need to build more homes. Current rents and house prices are unaffordable for many people in the city, but there is also, to put it simply, not enough houses.
Recent analysis found that we will need to build more than 60,000 new homes in the city by 2040 to meet growing demand. Under the Mayor’s administration we made great progress on this, and I hope the new Green/ Lib Dem coalition now running the city will continue this work.
Nationally, Labour has a plan to address this problem, by freeing up low-value land that is protected by arbitrary geographical factors: what is known as grey-belt land. Reforming the planning system to free up that land will enable us to build the homes we need, while protecting valuable green spaces.
