Gideon Amos MP calls for community-led housing

Gideon Amos, MP for Taunton and Wellington, has said new housing should be community led, come with the right infrastructure and be genuinely affordable for local people rather than imposed by “Whitehall diktat”
He was responding in Parliament to the Labour Government’s announcement today (Thursday) of proposals to accelerate housebuilding with the aim of building 1.5 million, mostly private market housing, over the current Parliament.
Speaking in the chamber, Mr Amos hailed instead the building by Liberal Democrat-led Somerset Council of “the first new council houses in a generation in parts of the county - many of them zero carbon”.
Under the new planning rules, updated via the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), mandatory house building targets will be imposed on councils.
Mr Amos, the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson on housing and planning, said after the debate: "We need to restore trust in politics, and you don't do that by ignoring local communities.
“The new homes we need must be genuinely affordable and community led, not dictated from Whitehall diktat, with local amenities like GPs, schools and public transport built alongside new homes.
"Across the country, vulnerable families and pensioners are on never ending waiting lists, desperate for a safe home.
“Addressing the housing crisis will also help us solve the care crisis, especially for older and vulnerable people.
"It is clear that Britain is in a housing crisis, but this announcement does not address the root problem - a desperate lack of social housing.
“The Government must now make this their priority and deliver the 150,000 social homes we need annually."
Earlier in the week, Mr Amos opposed Government plans which could lead to local planning committees being bypassed.
He told the Commons: “Let us be clear – when Whitehall takes planning decisions out of the hands of local councillors, it is taking decisions out of the hands of local people.
“That is undemocratic, and we would reverse that.
“Instead, the Government should unblock the thousands of permitted homes that are not being built.”