England is in the grip of an acute and entrenched housing crisis. A generation is locked out of homeownership, 1.3 million people are on social housing waiting lists and and millions of low-income households have been forced into insecure, unaffordable and sub-standard private rented housing.
The main cause of the housing crisis is the failure, over many decades, to build enough homes to meet housing demand and need. Our Labour Government’s plan to deliver 1.5 million safe and decent homes in the next four years has my full support. It has already taken decisive action to increase the supply of new homes, with bold reforms to the planning system and the launch of the new homes accelerator programme, which will unblock thousands of homes stuck in the planning system.
In the recent Spending Review, our Labour Government is investing £39 billion for a new Affordable Homes Programme to turbocharge our commitment to get Britain building and deliver the 1.5 million homes this country needs.
I agree that any housing developments must consider existing local communities and the local amenities needed to support additional people moving into our communities. My very first question in parliament focused on access to NHS services like dentistry as our community continues to grow and is available to see here if of interest.
The Planning and Infrastructure Act which was given Royal Assent in December 2025, will introduce a system of strategic planning across England, so that a range of local authorities will be required to prepare special development strategies for their area.
I welcome that our Labour Government has noted the importance of local communities being actively involved in the production of special development strategies. I am pleased it also recognises that providing access to nature and green spaces is vital and that it has set out ambitious plans to expand opportunities for the public to enjoy the outdoors.
In addition, I look forward to seeing the development of plans to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation. Our Labour Government has committed to prioritising building new social rented homes and better protecting our existing stock by reviewing the increased right-to-buy discounts introduced in 2012 and increasing protections on newly built social housing.
I’m excited that in our area we are welcoming 6,500 new homes as part of the new Brabazon development and I’ve worked closely with the developers, YTL, to ensure it is meeting targets. 1,700 homes are planned to be affordable and it will also include a new station, further connecting our area, and a brand new state-of-the-art arena that has a maximum capacity of 20,000.
The Brabazon development has been built on a grey belt, with the ground formerly Filton airfield. It is an excellent example of how Labour is helping build new homes while protecting our much-loved green spaces. This has included repurposing old infrastructure, such as the new Spitfire Community Hanger, which I helped open in November 2025.
Locally, our green belt and community provisions was hugely at risk under the Conservatives locally and nationally, as they failed to introduce a strategic Local Plan here, so development was speculative, and we’ve felt the impact of that. Under the new administration, South Gloucestershire Council has consulted on the Local Plan for a number of months and after going through multiple rounds of consultation, that many local people had submitted into, the Local Plan has gone through a final review before submitted for independent examination in 2025. The full details of the Local Plan are available here: https://localplan.commonplace.is/
As our local MP, I’ve met with local housebuilders of a range of sizes and always raise infrastructure with them, too. I have co-signed a letter to all major developers, with other Labour MPs, in April 2025 on this issue, which you can read here. I have raised more specific issues with local housebuilding companies and have also written to property companies to hold them accountable for the conditions of local housing and will continue to stand up to residents to ensure our communities remain good places to live, work, and socialise.