Labour will build new towns and Georgian housing, Starmer to promise

Sir Keir Starmer will announce plans for a new generation of new towns and Georgian-style housing in urban areas, as he vows to “get Britain building” during his big conference speech.

The Labour leader will promise new towns developed by state-backed companies with compulsory purchase powers – recalling the Atlee government’s building of Stevenage, Crawley, Basildon and Milton Keynes.

Sir Keir will say amenities including doctors’ surgeries, schools and transport links “hardwired” into the plans, as he promises a “big build” at his crucial address in Liverpool.

A six-month consultation would identify sites for new towns with potential for high economic growth and “significant unmet housing need”.

Labour is set to focus on the south of England, including Cambridge and the M1 corridor around Milton Keynes, according to The Times.

Sir Keir Starmer is also expected to pledge to new Georgian-style townhouses in urban areas, the newspaper reported. Guidance will ask for “gentle urban development” emulating the five-storey blocks built during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Georgian-style blocks lined along streets have become fashionable in some planning circles as a way of getting higher density housing in towns and cities without resorting to high-rise flats.

Mr Starmer is set for a major row with “nimby” and countryside campaigners, since he will also commit to building on the some greenbelt areas – saying low-quality green belt such as scrubland and car parks should be released.

The party has called such areas “grey belt” and want half of homes built there to be sold at affordable prices. Housing developers are also set to be given “planning passports” so they can build more quickly on brownfield land with a “stronger presumption in favour of permission”.

Pat McFadden, Labour’s campaign coordinator, admitted there could be strong opposition to Labour’s proposals to build on some parts of the greenbelt. “We don’t want opposition to be ignored – but we have to do this,” he said.

Housing expert Peter Apps expressed cynicism at the Labour announcement. “So many big ‘new town’ type proposals only live in political speeches, and die on contact with the real world,” he tweeted. “In the coalition era, there was some sort of new garden town or village announcement every couple of years, and none built.”

Sir Keir will claim to be the party of housbuilding as he set his sights on at least two terms in power and “heal” Britain after 13 years of Tory rule. “People are looking to us because they want us to build a new Britain and we are the builders,” he will say.

“That pebble-dashed semi was everything to my family,” Sir Keir is expected to say on the importance of having a secure home. “It gave us stability through the cost of living crises of the seventies, served as a springboard for the journey I’ve been on in my life. And I believe every family deserves the same.”

Sir Keir will also promise to devolve power to towns and cities across England, giving them the kinds of powers enjoyed by London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, the Guardian reported.

“If we want to challenge the hoarding of potential in our economy then we must win the war against the hoarders in Westminster,” he will say. “Give power back and put communities in control.”

Meanwhile, Sir Keir will reverse the “de-prioritisation of shoplifting” under £200 and create a new specific offence of assault against shop workers, according to the Mirror.

Labour began its conference buoyed by by-election success in Rutherglen, and strategists now are hopeful of picking up dozens more seats from the SNP in Scotland to help overturn the Tory majority.

Sir Keir, who took over the Labour leadership from Jeremy Corbyn in the wake of the disastrous 2019 general election, will also highlight the party’s transformation, saying “we will never go back” to being “in thrall to gesture politics” and “a party of protest”.