Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has denied his party is leading efforts to oppose new homes being built. In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson, Sir Ed was challenged with examples where Lib Dem councillors or MPs had argued against housebuilding plans in their areas.
In response, he gave his own examples of where he said the party was building more homes or being criticised for building too many.
The Lib Dem leader said he supported a “community-led approach”, where more affordable homes were built in the right places, alongside infrastructure like schools, GP surgeries and transport.
He argued the current planning system was not building the homes the country needed and was “doing it to the developers tune”.
It was put to Sir Ed that Lib Dem-run councils had opposed plans to build more than 3,000 new homes on an airfield in Oxfordshire, while he had described proposals to build thousands of homes in Surrey near his constituency as “eye-watering” numbers. Sir Ed told the BBC he did not know about individual examples.
However, he offered his own “counter-examples”, including Kingston, south-west London, where he said the Lib-Dem run authority had the largest council housebuilding programme in 40 years.
Sir Ed is standing again to be MP for Kingston and Surbiton and his wife is portfolio holder for housing on the local council. He added that Lib Dem councillors in Cambridgeshire were being criticised by local Conservatives for building too many houses.
Challenged over whether Lib Dems generally lead the opposition to new homes being built, Sir Ed said: “What you’ve said is wrong and I can give you counter-examples
Source: BBC
