Northern powerhouse and local growth minister Jake Berry has condemned local authorities for not using their powers to deliver more houses.
“Government can only go so far,” he said at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. “My great frustration is lots of local authorities do not deliver on the powers they have to deliver more houses.”
He added: “We have given significant powers, and simplified the planning system, and asked local authorities to go out there, create exciting plans, under a neighbourhood level, informing a local plan or just a local plan to build more houses.
“How the local authority then uses that power is ultimately really up to the local authority, and those of us who are dissatisfied with the way our local authority behaves, should really take the opportunity to sack the councillors and we can; because that’s what we have elections for.”
Berry, a former property lawyer who is MP for Rossendale & Darwen and has worked at the Department for Local Communities and Government since 2010, was appointed Northern Powerhouse and local growth minister in June after MP Andrew Percey announced his resignation from the role via Instagram.
His comments followed a speech by communities secretary Sajid Javid in which he attacked “nimbyism” as he called for 1m new homes to be built by 2020.
Henry Brooks, founder of TEM Property, said he has experienced councils putting out press releases calling housebuilders “speculative developers” and “locusts”. “They are failing to understand that they are asleep on deck, not getting a grip on the problem,” he said.
However, he added: “I think one thing that there’s unanimity amongst people who are pro, against development, is the local authorities are not adequately resourced.”
Daniel Humphreys, leader of Worthing Council, said: “Personally, I think rather than the threat of being asleep on the job, I think, pass those powers down because frankly I think people in local areas aren’t as averse to housebuilding as I think quite a lot of councillors think they are.
“I think councillors get spooked by a small number of the noisy minority who don’t want it and are ignoring the quiet majority who are concerned about housebuilding.”
He said he would support the power to raise planning fees, as proposed in the housing white paper earlier this year.
“It seems to me an absolute nonsense that planning departments aren’t self-resourcing in that regard; that we’ve got the Taylor Wimpeys of this world putting in these very big planning applications and effectively that process being subsidised by hard-pressed local taxpayers.”
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