Bradley has written to the new Prime Minister to urge him to reverse the “disastrous” 85% increase in Bromsgrove and the Village’s housing target.
On his first day in 10 Downing Street, the local MP has written to Andy Burnham to set out the case for reversing the constituency’s housing target.
Whist increasing Bromsgrove and the Village’s housing target, Keir Starmer’s government reduced Birmingham’s target by 31% - despite the city having at least 140 hectares of brownfield land that could be built on.
Bradley has been fighting back ever since. He launched a Parliamentary petition, signed by more than 5,000 people, that demanded the Government justifies the flawed formula used to calculate the 85% increase in Bromsgrove and the Villages’ housing target and to rebalance the housing target so that Birmingham takes its fair share. The Government refused to listen and continued to be unable to justify the flawed formula used to calculate the constituency’s housing target.
Following the petition, Bradley also met with the Housing and Planning Minister to once again make the case for the 85% increase to be reversed. At the meeting, the Housing and Planning Minister continued to attempt to justify the Government’s decision to increase the housing target by 85%.
His efforts to save the greenbelt didn’t stop there. In Parliament, Bradley voted to prioritise development on brownfield sites first in order to protect the greenbelt. However, the vote failed to pass after the Government used its majority to vote it down.
Although the vote failed, Bradley isn’t stopping there. His fight to protect the greenbelt continues with another Parliamentary petition that demands the Government builds houses on brownfield land first.
According to the latest "State of Brownfield 2025" report from the CPRE, there is enough brownfield land capacity in England to support a minimum of 1.41 million new homes, of which 55% already have full or in-principle planning permission. That should be the Government’s priority. Instead, they’re pursuing a policy to help their friends in the cities whilst punishing rural Britain.
There are also more than 1 million empty homes in England. Bradley’s petition calls on the Government to set out a strategy to bring these properties back into long-term use.
The petition also demands that, when houses are built in the right locations, they should only be built when the accompanying infrastructure is provided.
In his letter to the new Prime Minister, Bradley has asked Andy Burnham to work with him on his common-sense housebuilding policy.
Bradley said:
“The new Prime Minister has said he wants to do politics differently, and in that spirit I want to work with him to implement a common-sense housing policy in this country.
“I know the Prime Minister shares my concerns about the destruction of the greenbelt given he opposes the building of 400 homes on greenbelt land in his constituency.
“I therefore hope he will work with me to adopt my common-sense approach to housebuilding, which is build on brownfield land first, bring long-term empty homes back into use and provide communities with infrastructure first before any new houses are built.
“I believe that, if the Government builds houses on brownfield land first and brings empty properties back into use, the disastrous 85% increase in Bromsgrove and the Villages’ housing target could be reversed, saving the greenbelt and protecting the constituency from excessive development.
“There’s just so much more the Government could be doing rather than building on our greenbelt.
“It just doesn’t have to be this way, and I won’t stop until this Government wakes up, sees sense and reverses their 85% increase in our housebuilding target which will destroy our precious greenbelt as we know it.”
Residents can sign Bradley’s petition by clicking here.
