“The government are planning an attack on the aspirations of thousands of young people and families who simply want a home to call their own.

Should the Conservatives proposed housing and planning bill become law then it risks not only delivering a hugely damaging impact on the amount of affordable housing in our communities, but also takes power away from local people and councils to deliver more in the future.

Around half of all affordable homes built in the last decade were funded through section 106 obligations – approximately 234,000 homes. At its peak under Labour, in 2008-9, this enabled over 32,000 homes to be built. The housing and planning bill is going to put a stop to that.

The government plan to set aside developers obligations under section 106 and instead legislate for the provision of so called ‘starter homes’ – to be sold at 80 per cent of full market rate.

The Conservatives are trying to pass this off as providing affordable homes, but the fact is that in my own town of Dartford you would need to earn a salary of £52,000 to afford one of these misnamed ‘starter’ homes. They will be totally out of reach for many young people and families in the ward I represent and it is a similar story in many others across the country.

Starter homes will do nothing to help people already struggling to get on the housing ladder, and it reveals the truth about this government’s attitude towards people who simply aspire to get on and get on the first rung of the housing ladder – the Tories have nothing to say to you. Thousands of people risk being locked out of housing market.

Understandably, councillors across the country are hugely concerned, not only about the potential impact on the future of affordable housing in their local areas but also the fact that this bill takes power away from councils to act to stop the loss of affordable homes we are going to experience.

The government may talk about localism and devolution but their actions here are in total contradiction to their words. By handing a wide range of powers over planning back to the secretary of state they will weaken local government’s ability to provide the mix of housing local communities need and robs local people of their say in the planning process:

It means that the government can impose starter-home obligations on developers.

It means that the government can direct councils to change their local plan or even suspend it altogether.

It means the government can overrule council planning boards and grant planning permission directly – regardless of whether a new development is going to meet the housing needs of a local area – undermining the ability of local people to have a proper say about what happens in their area. …

.In my own council, the Conservatives used a closure motion to prevent a full debate taking place. When Conservative councils like Dartford are not prepared to defend their own government’s policy it tells you everything about what even the Tories in local government feel about what this bill is going to do to affordable housing provision in our communities. …”

Jonathan Hawkins, Labour, Dartford, Progress Online 17/12/15