S
hadow chancellor John McDonnell has called for a renaissance in the way government approaches development and announced Labour is setting up a working group on site development.
“We are desperate for ideas, we’re desperate for harnessing the creativity of our population, of our communities,” he said at a U+I breakfast event: Building great places – the view from the Left.
Asking for developers to contact him to get involved with the working group, he said there was “opportunity for the Labour Party to start listening again and engaging in a more thorough way than we’ve ever done before.”
He said a part of his own constituency, Hayes and Harlington, UB3, was turning into a “shanty town” as around 200 families have been classified as homeless, representing a housing crisis not seen “for two or three generations”.
McDonnell praised U+I’s regeneration scheme at the Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes, which he said was an example of a development that showed good community engagement as well as being economically viable.
He contrasted the scheme with another unnamed development in his constituency built five years ago, which has segregated the social housing element and failed to deliver on promises to build an arts centre and other facilities.
“In the words of one tenant, ‘apartheid exists’”, he said.
McDonnell said Labour’s priorities were for long-term infrastructure investment and solving the housing crisis through developments that meet the needs of communities, the nation and investors.
Local authorities and entrepreneurs both needed to be creative to deliver housing effectively, he said. An “entrepreneurial state” where the government works effectively with the private sector to create products, markets and developments was the future, he said.
Every new job should be a green job and every new building should be sustainable in the long term, he added.
Major policy changes he would like to see include a review of local government funding, which has been cut at the same time as council are given greater responsibilities; and the introduction of a land value tax if he could get support from developers.
Beauty, something which politicians don’t often talk about, should also be a priority, he said.
“I come from that socialist tradition that includes William Morris. Aesthetics are important as well. It’s important that people enjoy the environment they’re living and working in, and that adds to their creativity at the same time as stimulating the wider community as well.”
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