York: Sir Keir Starmer on Labour's plans for housing

Ahead of a planned televised BBC Question Time Leaders' Special in the city, the leader of The Labour Party visited Persimmon’s Germany Beck development in Fulford where he spoke to staff from the housebuilder on site.

The Labour manifesto includes a commitment to build 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament, a figure which the BBC reported will require average annual housing completions not seen since 1969.

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Sir Keir said: “So far as building new houses is concerned, we want good quality housing, we want to protect the countryside, we want to make sure where housing’s put up there are schools, GPs, the basic facilities and infrastructure you would expect.

“But we have to take the tough decisions to get rid of the delays.

“This project here, 650 houses, was 15 years from the plans to the first spade in the ground.

“That delay has cost people the opportunity to own their own home.

“We will take the tough decisions to end that.”

'That’s why the dream of home ownership has effectively been extinguished now for so many people'

In addition to cutting red-tape in planning, Sir Keir said it was important to reduce the deposit that needs to be paid by first time buyers, as well as ‘not allowing developers to sell off-plan before first-time buyers and local buyers get the chance even to look in’.

Sir Keir met staff from Persimmon on site (Image: Kevin Glenton)

The Labour leader outlined to reporters how his party would also offer protection to those in rented accommodation.

Sir Keir said: “They’re paying very high rents a lot of the time and conditions aren’t what they should be.

“We’ve set out in our package of measures limits to the amounts landlords can get people to compete against each other to put the rent up and up and up, and the amount people have to put down as a deposit in the first place.  

“That means they can’t save in the way they’d like to save and never get the deposits to get on the housing ladder.

“That’s why the dream of home ownership has effectively been extinguished now for so many people, 36 being the average age before people can get on the housing ladder, so that’s the first thing we can do.”

The leader of the opposition answered questions on housing, cutting planning red-tape, as well as helping renters and homebuyers (Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

In addition to housing, The Labour Party leader said there was a plan for roads and infrastructure, with plans in place to deal with potholes.

He said that his party, in government, would have a road building project, which would include looking at the details of the proposals to upgrade the A64 road.

When asked by reporters about the news that a Conservative candidate was being looked into by the Gambling Commission over allegations that a bet was placed on the timing of the election, he said: “This candidate should be suspended and its very telling that Rishi Sunak has not already done that.

“If it was one of my candidates, they’d be gone and their feet would not have touched the floor.”