Buckingham and Bletchley MP: We must build more affordable homes in Bucks

The Buckingham and Bletchley MP has urged Buckinghamshire Council to collaborate with national government.

This week in a letter to Cllr Martin Tett, the Leader of Buckinghamshire Council, Callum Anderson MP has called for a collaborative approach to end the ‘dearth of genuinely affordable homes’ in the county.

Citing statistics showing that housing starts fell by 53% between 2019/20 and 2023/24 in Buckinghamshire, and over 500 people have been added to the local social housing waitlist in the past three months alone, the Buckingham and Bletchley MP commented: “As a parliamentary candidate and now a Member of Parliament, I have simply met too many families facing rising rents… Things can and must be different. As politicians, I hope we can both agree that people of all ages in Buckinghamshire must be able to realise that very basic British aspiration of owning their own home.”

Cllr Tett had written to Buckingham and Bletchley’s new MP following proposals from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to re-introduce mandatory housing targets and increase the number of houses being built in the county.

This follows Labour’s manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years to ‘get Britain building again’ and reduce the UK's shortfall of homes. He argued that Buckinghamshire would struggle to scale up housebuilding and that Labour’s concept of the ‘grey belt’ was a means of releasing existing green belt land for development.

This is something Callum Anderson has refuted previously. Commenting a few weeks ago, the Buckingham and Bletchley MP said: “Labour is on the side of those with that aspiration and has a plan to tackle the housing crisis affecting thousands of families across Buckinghamshire. We have promised to work closely with local communities to do this and will always take a ‘Brownfield first’ approach… I would really encourage Cllr Tett and his administration to engage constructively with the Government on the substance of the proposed reforms”.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s consultation on changes to the planning system closed on September 24th . Further information on how the reforms will be implemented practically is expected soon.