Writing in this week's (August 13th) Bromsgrove Advertiser, Bradley said:
“This is an open letter to the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
Dear Angela,
This is an invitation to Bromsgrove and the Villages to see for yourself the destruction your 85% increase in our housebuilding target will inflict upon our precious greenbelt.
As you know, whilst you’ve massively increased our housing target – despite our constituency being 89% greenbelt and 79% rural – at the same time you’ve reduced Birmingham’s target by 38%. Please explain to me and my constituents how this makes sense.
My constituents and I are outraged at this unfairness. There is at least 140 hectares of brownfield land in Birmingham that could be built on – yet you wish to see the greenbelt concreted over instead.
To save our greenbelt, I’ve launched a Parliamentary petition which has been signed by more than 2,500 people so far. When I present the petition in the House of Commons in the autumn, your Government will be forced to justify the flawed formula used to calculate the local housing need for Bromsgrove District.
In formulating our housing target, you have failed to accurately measure local housing demand in Bromsgrove and the Villages, creating an incorrect housing need figure for the constituency. Again, please explain to my constituents the formula you used. Your colleague, the Leader of the House, failed to do so in the House of Commons recently.
Your Government’s affordability ratio shows the relationship between local house prices and jobs available in that locality. However, this does not accurately reflect the reality of Districts such as Bromsgrove, where many people commute into major cities where there are higher paying jobs, which puts upward pressure on Bromsgrove house prices and makes the local income figure artificially low, both of which incorrectly drive up our housing allocation.
I’m completely opposed to the Government increasing the flawed affordability multiplier. Bromsgrove District Council’s assessment shows that this will directly result in thousands more homes being built-in high-quality greenbelt in the constituency, when there is not a sufficient local need for this to happen. The effect of this change will in fact be to accelerate development in the very places that the greenbelt was established to protect.
I would be keen for you to visit Bromsgrove and the Villages to discuss the case to reverse the planned 85% increase in Bromsgrove’s housing target, and subsequent reduction in Birmingham’s housing target to ensure the burden is shared in a fair and proportionate way.
You would have far more support for your Government’s housing target if you only allowed new houses to be built when the accompanying infrastructure is provided.
Kind regards,
Bradley Thomas
Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove and the Villages”
