Tory Minister slaps local Tories AGAIN !!

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has attacked councils such as Northumberland that have failed to agree housebuilding plans.

He said they were contributing to the nation’s lack of high-quality housing.

Mr Javid made the remarks as the Government launched proposals to increase the supply of affordable housing, including making local councils responsible for ensuring homes are built.

Northumberland scrapped its housing strategy in July last year and is currently consulting on a new one, but Mr Javid has threatened to intervene to force them to speed up the process. And in a speech to a national planning conference in London, he said: “You’ll have heard me express my frustration about some local planning authorities that are still lagging behind on this score.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: these plans are absolutely key to helping us build the right homes in the right places.

“So, it’s vital that you get them in place quickly and keep them up to date to ensure that permissions turn into homes.

“The alternative – speculative development and neighbourhoods that are poorly planned, lacking strong communities – is something that none of us want to see.”

Northumberland was one of 15 councils put “on notice” by the Government last year for failing to agree a plan setting out how land will be used for new homes and jobs.

It is now unlikely to adopt a new Local Plan until 2020.

The Government has warned that failure to agree plans and keep them up to date “will no longer be tolerated” and threatened intervention to force them to act.

But Northumberland’s Conservative administration says it had to axe the previous plan, drawn up when the council was Labour-led, because it would “concrete over Northumberland”.

Labour Group Chair Scott Dickinson said: "The Northumberland Tories withdrew the Core Strategy leaving Northumberland in a FREE for all. Now it's being criticised AGAIN from one of its own Tory Ministers. It's a complete mess".

"This shows a completely inexperienced administration, making decisions based on political gains rather than the best interests of Northumberland and this is another example of this approach spectacularly backfiring".

"The Leader of the Council said it would be replaced within 8weeks, we now know the real timescale is 2020 some 3yrs+ meanwhile Northumberland County Council Planners are left battling developers with no document to work from."

"Labour offered a motion alternative which would have modified the numbers without leaving the whole County unprotected, but they continued with the maverick approach which has left communities in a vulnerable position."