Bradford council and MP clash over housing plans

Housing Minister Gavin Barwell has told Bradford Council it cannot press ahead with its local plan which sets out where new homes should be built.

Shipley MP Philip Davies had asked the Government to intervene over his concerns that Bradford’s plans would see “swathes” of the green belt disappear.

But Bradford Council claims that by trying to prevent the local plan going ahead, Mr Davies will leave the authority with no protection against developers choosing to build where they wish.

Mr Davies said: “If Bradford Council looked after the interests of the Shipley constituency in the way they do their inner city Labour heartlands then I would not have felt the need to ask the Minister to intervene.

“It is Bradford Council who have delayed introducing a plan and so they only have themselves to blame for the length of time it has taken to introduce a development plan.

“My constituents are not prepared to accept huge swathes of the Green Belt being concreted over for the convenience of the Labour council which clearly doesn’t care a jot about their interests.

“If they have done their job properly they wouldn’t be in the position they find themselves in. They should show a bit of humility and promise to take more note of the concerns of local residents rather than thrashing around to blame political opponents for a mess of their own creation.”

The local plan process has proved hugely controversial for councils across Yorkshire as they set out where homes and businesses will be built over the next 15 years.

Councils without local plans are considered to be at much higher risk of having their planning decisions successfully overturned by developers.

The row has emerged just days after Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid called on Conservative councillors and MPs to back house-building plans “even if they’re unpopular” because of the national shortage of new homes.

Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: “This is frankly outrageous behaviour by the MP for Shipley. By delaying the approved Local Plan, he has exposed his constituents and the rest of the District to the very real risk of unsuitable developments that would be sorely regretted for years to come.

“The Government instructs all councils to draw up a Local Plan and it encourages its planning inspectors to be pragmatic in their assessment of those plans, in view of the huge amount of work and consultation that goes into them.

“We played by the rules and our plan won the approval of the inspector. Yet now we have this one MP with his own agenda who has created a vacuum of uncertainty and a potential development free-for-all.”