Michael Gove was among the big names taking to the stage yesterday at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
The housing secretary delivered a speech to the conference light on new policies and laden with election slogans.
He merely touched upon housing in his 13-minute presentation, in which he attacked ‘jellyfish’ Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
“He’s transparent, spineless and swept along by the tide,” he said.
Gove also argued that “the Union has been strengthened”, and claimed “nationalism is in retreat in Scotland”.
He claimed Brexit “has been delivered” and there is now more than £350m extra a week for our NHS. “Promise made, promise delivered,” he said, without providing any evidence to back up this statement.
He also insisted the “Conservatives will protect the green belt”, while the other main political parties apparently won’t.
As far as housing is concerned, Gove said the government was committed to building more new homes despite scrapping its housebuilding targets last year. He also said planning reform was high on the agenda.
Propertymark’s head of policy and campaigns, Timothy Douglas, commented: “The Conservative Party’s record in government means we are continuing to talk about building more homes that the country desperately needs. Reforming planning, new homes to net zero and more affordable places to live are vital but we need action now.
“Furthermore, the party of home ownership also needs to be the party of renting which means a whole-scale review of taxes impacting landlords and investment in the private rented sector. The money to support regional development is welcome but the proportion of towns that will receive support is a drop in the ocean to what is needed.”
Also in response to Gove’s Party Conference Speech, Mike Burton, land director at Metis Homes, said: “Michael Gove’s speech was somewhat disappointing, however it was positive to see housing again mentioned as an election topic, and gaining some traction as an important political matter and concern.
“Yet, the lack of detail on how they will deliver their housing aims and target of one million new homes was very apparent. Gove is clearly still focussed on brownfield development being the main source of development land, which as everyone in the industry knows cannot sustain the level of development needed for the country.
“Furthermore Gove reinforced their policy of protecting the greenbelt, seemingly at whatever cost. It would be better to see a pragmatic approach to the greenbelt, taking into account that there will be areas of land that don’t actually benefit the greenbelt and could be released – but the devil is in the detail, and there was no detail in this speech. I was hoping for a solid and comprehensive strategy for getting the housing industry back on track, looks like we will be waiting a bit longer.”
