Britain needs to build more homes – and so does Bristol

THE housing debate has risen higher up the political agenda in the past month.

There are two topics where action is long overdue: the need for leasehold reform and the Renters Reform Bill, which would outlaw ‘no fault’ evictions and tackle rogue landlords.

But it’s building new homes that is the most controversial issue, both nationally and locally.

There’s nothing radical about saying we need to build more houses: we haven’t been building enough.

Between 2010 and 2021, 1.8 million new homes were registered in the UK, while the population grew by nearly 5 million. (The average household being around 2.37 people).

The housing shortage has many consequences. As well as our growing homelessness crisis - Shelter estimates that there are currently 271,000 homeless people in England alone – it drives up house prices and rents to unaffordable levels.

In 2022, the median house price was eight times the median salary in England and Wales. Generations are having to accept that they may never be able to afford to buy their own homes –but rents are rocketing too.

There is one straightforward solution to this: build more homes. Yet the Government has backtracked from its mandatory house-building targets to appease its own backbenchers. Labour has pledged to reinstate those targets.

Around Fishponds there has already been some significant new housing built in recent years, for example on the Blackberry Hill site previously occupied by UWE.

There are now plans for the brownfield site behind Morrisons, known as Atlas Place.

It’s important they get this right - and I recognise the concerns about some aspects of the development, including the desire to protect the chimneys and to ensure local services can meet the increased demand – but that’s what the planning system is there for.

Done properly, this will mean many more people get to live in a comfortable, affordable and secure home.

There are areas, however, where we shouldn’t be building.

Bristol has been very clear in its One City Ecological Strategy that it wants 30% of the land in the city to be managed for the benefit of wildlife.

It’s therefore hugely disappointing that the Planning Inspectorate overruled the council – and the wishes of local residents - to approve a development by Homes England on Brislington Meadows. We are continuing to explore ways in which it might still be possible to stop this.

Yes, we need house-building targets for councils but at the same time, councils need to be given autonomy to decide which sites get developed.

The current system – where not enough homes get built, yet local authorities still don’t have the final say – is the worst of both worlds.