Adonis: Stop Brexit and look to Scotland on housing

Lord Andrew Adonis – former secretary of state for transport under Tony Blair and the mastermind behind HS2 – says Labour should look to Scotland and its huge social homebuilding programme for inspiration. “When somebody is doing good not in our party, seize it and pay tribute to them,” he said. The Scottish government has allocated £5bn over the next five years to its social housing programme. The average subsidy is £72,000 per home and both councils and social housing providers are being invited to bid. If the same spending were applied on a per capita basis in England, it would amount to £50bn – 25 times more than the current Conservative pledge of £2bn. Speaking at a fringe event at this year’s Labour Party Conference, Adonis accused the Tories of Trump-ism by using Brexit as a distraction and bringing culture and identity war into British politics. Instead, he said the government should be concentrating on matters closer to home. “That is where we are: stop Brexit, elect a Labour government, and start attending to things that matter for the country,” he said. “We need proper investment, a proper social housing bill and programme.” He said that, were he minister, he would be already moving on with Crossrail 2 and its station development to ease the housing crisis, but only build stations where local authorities proposed massive increases in housebuilding. “I would say you can only have these stations if you propose radical housing development. If Chelsea and the Kings Road don’t want a station because they do not want the ‘hoi-polloi’, that’s fine.” Divided over green belt However, he stopped short of advocating green belt development, as did shadow housing minister and MP for Croydon Central Sarah Jones. Jones pointed to mechanisms already in place for exceptional development on the belt, and said replacing one rigid system with another is not the right way. She said policy should be enabling local authorities to do the right thing and make their own decisions. “On the green belt the current view is there are far more radical things we could do with land value – that’s where we should start our fight for affordable housing,” she said. Adonis added: “I am not myself in favour of a review of the green belt that opens the floodgates to opponents.” “You do not declare war on the green belt, you focus on the objectives – the quality and the volume – and if we get this policy right in a sophisticated way we can do it.” This went against the thinking of the organiser of the event, Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden, who has been looking at development on the green belt around London to ease housing pressure. To send feedback, e-mail alex.peace@egi.co.uk or tweet @EGAlexPeace or @estatesgazette