Emma Reynolds has described housing minister Brandon Lewis’ suggestion that councils do not need to produce local plans as “irresponsible”.
Speaking to Estates Gazette before her speech at the NHBC annual lunch, the shadow housing minister said that in authorities without a local housing plan residents often feel they have been “carved out of the decision making process”. Reynolds said Labour’s deadline of December 2016 for local authorities to produce a plan would give more say to local people.
Reynolds also explained how her government would give more flexibility to councils to raise taxes on homes if they had been left empty for a year.
At the event both Reynolds and Lewis agreed that the skill shortage in the construction industry needs to be addressed and more should be done to encourage young people and ex-armed forces members to enter the industry.
