Bradley has slammed the Prime Minister for his "lack of respect" in failing to respond to his letter about the 85% increase in our housebuilding target.
Last month, Bradley wrote to the new Prime Minister on his first day in 10 Downing Street to urge him to reverse the “disastrous” 85% increase in Bromsgrove and the Village’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 has received a response, but not from the Prime Minister. He failed to acknowledge it and palmed it off to his Housing Minister who then palmed it off to a civil servant in his Department.
Bradley said:
"On the day that he was appointed I wrote to the Prime Minister outlining our concerns about the 85% increase in our housebuilding target.
"He failed to acknowledge it and palmed it off to his Housing Minister who then palmed it off to a civil servant in his Department.
"Despite this lack of respect, I wanted to share with you what I think is a key paragraph from the response I received. It's the clearest admission yet that the Government is prioritising the expansion of Birmingham at the expense of our precious greenbelt.
"This isn't the end of the matter and I'll continue to fight to protect our greenbelt from Labour's bulldozers."
