Full Council 13/03/24

The Places for Everyone strategy will do nothing to tackle the housing crisis in Oldham. 

Expensive luxury housing on our Green Belt is not the answer for families and our young people struggling to get onto the housing ladder.

This strategy fails to deliver new infrastructure investment to support the homes it aims to build.

• No new investment in roads. 
• No proportionate contribution to new health care services. 
• No new school places. 

Taking the right approach to development requires hard work to get the right redevelopments of our ex-industrial heritage buildings and to achieve the right mix of social rents as well as starter homes. 

But Labour is not prepared to do the hard work. 

Labour have tried to blame the Governments out of date housing targets – but the minister has now ruled those out some time ago – that is why near 50 councils have paused their local plans to take breath and have another look – something we asked for, but it was rejected.

Labour have taken the easy way out and they are handing a blank cheque to developers who will destroy our green spaces forever.

Just look at Derker – the subject of Housing Market Renewal nearly two decades ago.  Still there are vast tracks of former housing land that is just empty and an eye sore.  Why is that not being developed as we were promised?

I will tell you why because green land is cheaper and easier – it is just not good enough!

We should remove ourselves from Places for Everyone once and for all and do the hard but necessary work to create a local brownfield first housing strategy, truly affordable homes in the places people want to live and stop being Greater Manchester’s poodle on this matter!