Adam Thompson

I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent point. This Government’s drive towards building more homes is incredibly important. Turning to the parts of the Bill that pertain to the creation of local plans, such plans already allow communities and councils to determine where development should take place, what infrastructure should accompany that development and the mix of the home types that we need to meet local demand. They are built on assessments of local housing need and they are subject to consultation with residents, businesses and community organisations. I know this because in Erewash my colleagues on the council are currently going through the process of starting a new council local plan. In fact, this week Erewash borough council is publishing its first draft for a consultation to get the views of local residents on what they want to see in their community—indeed, in my community. For the first time, the council will be launching a brownfield land request, asking residents to identify brownfield sites that they believe could be suitable for development. This Government have a “brownfield first” policy. I think the council is doing great stuff in implementing that at a local level by allowing residents to put forward appropriate sites. It takes the conversation away from big landowners and developers and gives everyone the opportunity to chip in. I want to put something on the record. My hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) recently talked about fleecehold. I want to talk about a local area in my constituency where this is occurring. Around the time I moved to Erewash, a little over a decade ago, there was a new estate being built just on the outside of Ilkeston called Elka’s Rise. It was a lovely few hundred houses in a great location. Indeed, at one point I even looked at buying a house there myself. Since the completion of that estate, I have discovered by knocking on doors in the area and talking to residents that there are many issues—many colleagues will have had similar experiences. Residents have told me of a fee—I consider it to be almost a privatised council tax in many ways—that they are being forced to pay annually for the upkeep of space on the estate, whether it is the roads themselves, which have not yet been adopted by the council, despite being in good condition, or, in this case, the creation of a local play park that was never opened. The play park was built on flood land. Residents never got to use the space because it was completely unsuitable and unsafe. Fencing was put around the outside that was not safe. I went to look at the park and the grass was at chest height at one point. It was just dreadful. Yet the residents are being forced to pay for this on an ongoing basis. I was pleased in recent months to hear about the work that the Government are doing to tackle this fleecehold approach, and I look forward to hearing from the Minister over the coming weeks and months about what more he will be doing to implement changes to address these issues. I was very grateful that my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central raised that issue, because I was keen to get that on the record. I do want to say that local councillors Mark Alfrey and Kate Fennelly are doing fantastic work with the residents. They are doing everything they can to get as much of that land adopted by local councils so that we can take power away from those developers, who are really fleecing the residents. In the interests of local need, with which this Bill concerns itself, the draft plan has set ambitious goals. Erewash borough council seeks to ensure that of the 6,800 homes that it is expected to deliver under its plan, 1,500 will be available for social rent. More than 20% of those new homes will be provided for social rent—I think that is great. This measure will help us move towards bringing down the unacceptable length of our social housing waiting list and ending the practice of families growing up in temporary accommodation. I would also like to bring to the attention of the House the decision to create at least one new job for every home built. That will help to tackle youth unemployment and provide real opportunities for young people. It shows, again, the implementation of this Labour Government’s national policies at a local level by a Labour council, which I am incredibly proud of.