Your backyard may be next in Labour's housing gamble

ARE you a YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) or a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard)? Perhaps you're a BIMBY (Beauty In My Backyard) or a BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone)?

- Nicholas Boys Smith

We know this Government is YIMBY. Keir Starmer said so himself in October 2023: “Yes, I am.” And with a bold pledge to build 1.5 million homes, that means a lot of properties in a lot of backyards - even on allotments if Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is to be believed.

Few deny the need. House prices have exploded over the past 50 years. If bread rose at the same pace, it would now cost over £30 a loaf.

Fewer millennials own homes than any generation since the 1920s.

What does it mean for the towns, villages and green fields these new homes must occupy?

If planning permission is nationalised, as it effectively is, councils must be given reasons to say yes to developments.

This leads to a culture of saying no.

After a backbench rebellion, the Conservatives scrapped mandatory housing targets in 2022. Labour brought them back and bigger.

COUNCILS must now meet ambitious housing targets, over 30,000 homes a month, or lose the right to reject development. Britain hasn't built over 18,000 homes a month in 45 years.