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17
Jun
‘Put nimbyism to one side’: Mayor calls for more homes to be built
Rural communities “will die” unless more new homes are built, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire has said.
Speaking at the Rural Housing Conference at Ripon Cathedral, Labour's David Skaith called for “nimbyism” to be put to one side in order to build new housing in rural towns and villages in the region.
The mayor’s comments come as the government has dramatically increased North Yorkshire’s housing target from 1,361 homes a year to 4,156 a year, which has increased pressure on North Yorkshire Council to identify land for new homes.
Mr Skaith warned that a lack of new homes would mean rural areas becoming “hollowed out and lifeless”.
He said:
We must build homes in our rural communities. If we don’t, they will die.
New homes in our rural towns and villages help give people the chance to stay in the places they were raised or where they love. Those families help to keep our schools, pubs, GPs, post offices and shops open.
Unless we rise to this challenge and put NIMBYism to one side, these places will be hollowed out and lifeless.
York and North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith
But Mr Skaith said the drive to build new homes in rural areas did not mean “vast estates” should be built.
He said:
That doesn’t mean building vast estates on the edge of a small village, it means building the right homes, in the right amounts, in the right places.
The government’s housebuilding drive has raised fears among politicians and residents in North Yorkshire that developers could submit “speculative” housing applications.
Senior Tory councillors on North Yorkshire Council have also raised concern that there is no government policy to stop developers from acquiring land earmarked for new housing and then just holding on to it for future profit — a practice known as land banking.
This could prevent the council from meeting its new housing targets, which would have a knock-on effect each year.
At a council executive meeting on Tuesday (June 16), Cllr Simon Myers, the executive councillor for housing, said the government’s mandatory targets had left the authority a “hostage to fortune”.
The Conservative-run council is currently drawing up a new local plan, which will outline where development, including houses, can be built over the next 20 years.
But it is not expected to be finialised until October 2029.
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