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27
Sept
Local Tory MP questions whether North Yorkshire can cope with 4,232 new homes a year
Conservative Skipton and Ripon MP Sir Julian Smith has urged the government to reconsider plans for a huge increase in housebuiliding in North Yorkshire.
Labour wants to build 1.5 million homes in the UK over the next five years.
In a letter to deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner, Sir Julian said this would mean 4,232 homes being built in North Yorkshire each year.
He said the current target was 1,384 homes a year, which the county had easily out-performed by averaging 2,800 a year over the last 10 years.
But he questioned whether the new target was deliverable.
His letter to Ms Rayner, sent on Wednesday (September 25), says:
To generate the required demand, job creation in North Yorkshire would need to exceed estimates nine-and-a-half times over. I do not think that the capacity to deliver such a large increase is available, nor required, to ensure local need is met.
North Yorkshire is home to two National Parks, which develop their own local plans, and two further National Landscapes where development is restricted. A significant amount of infrastructure upgrades would also need to take place and I am not convinced these could be completed at a pace that offsets the impact of development.
Sir Julian said the current level of housebuilding had demonstrated North Yorkshire Council was “pro-growth council”.
But he added:
I would urge you and your officials to engage with North Yorkshire Council, as well as the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, to find a solution that matches their pre-existing ambitious plans for housing, with stretch targets from the government that are more deliverable than the current consultation projections.
The Stray Ferret recently reported that the council had delayed drafting its new local plan because of the change of government and the new housing targets.
You can read Mr Smith's letter in full below.
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