Michael Gove’s proposals for a redevelopment in Cambridge have triggered an angry response from a local Tory MP, who has promised to stand in the way of what he calls the housing secretary’s “nonsense plans”.
Gove told an audience in central London on Monday that he viewed the plans for a new urban quarter in Cambridge as his top priority on a list of similar schemes to kickstart housebuilding in urban areas.
The plans are the centrepiece of the Conservatives’ commitment to build 1m homes during the course of this parliament, and formed a large part of Gove’s most significant speech on housing since taking over at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. But ministers’ lack of powers to force through schemes in the face of local opposition were highlighted by resistance from Anthony Browne, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire.
Just half an hour before Gove was due to speak, Browne tweeted: “I will do everything I can to stop the government’s nonsense plans to impose mass housebuilding on Cambridge, where all major developments are now blocked by the Environment Agency because we have quite literally run out of water. Our streams, rivers and ponds already run dry.”
Asked about Browne’s comments, Gove said he believed he could convince the Tory backbencher of the scheme’s benefits. But he refused to say he would force through the plans even if local policymakers oppose them.
He said: “I’m sure we’ll find a compelling way forward. We can’t have Cambridge – an exceptional city – being held back.
“The members of parliament for Cambridgeshire, all of whom are friends of mine, I’m looking forward to discussing our plans with [them] in order to make sure that we can have the maximum level of consensus and support for the work.”
He added: “I believe in taking people with us and I believe that the vision that we’ve outlined is one that will command support.”
Gove has put the regeneration of Cambridge city centre at the heart of his vision for housing in England.
But the government remains well behind its target of building 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s – a target that Gove changed last year to make it easier for councils not to comply.
Labour is promising widespread planning changes should the party win the election that is likely to take place next year, including making it easier for councils to build on the green belt.
Gove, however, has rejected that vision, prioritising urban development instead. His plans include spending an extra £24m to help accelerate planning approvals, as well as another £13m for a new team to help solve planning difficulties for major projects. That team will first be deployed to Cambridge.
He said: “There is a distinction between the approach that Labour takes – which would be to add to those pressures without an answer on infrastructure – and the approach that we’re taking, whereby when we’re thinking about urban regeneration and the creation of new urban quarters, we’re thinking about them with GP surgeries, primary schools, other services, and urban parkland and green spaces built in from the beginning.”
Critics point out that there are barriers to new urban housebuilding plans, not least the changes Gove brought in last year that make it easier for local authorities to reject development plans.
Stewart Baseley, the executive chair of the Home Builders Federation, said: “Whilst welcoming the recognition from government that it needs to act if we are to build more homes, the proposals do little to address the major reasons why housing supply is falling.”
He added: “The government needs to focus on why the planning process is collapsing and reverse the proposals to weaken the planning system that have now seen 59 local authorities withdraw their housing plans.”
In a wide-ranging speech focusing heavily on policy, Gove also gave updates on a range of other promises, including his promise to end the leasehold system in England.
The housing secretary said he would legislate to improve rights for leaseholders in a number of ways, including limiting rises in ground rents, giving leaseholders more power to take control of the management of their properties, and reducing legal and insurance costs for leaseholders. But he confirmed that leasehold would remain a legal form of home ownership, triggering concern among some campaigners about the scope of his planned changes.
Gove also promised that two big UK developers would be punished after failing to sign the government’s contract to improve building safety after the Grenfell Tower fire. He did not say which developers had not signed or what the punishment would be, although in the past he has promised to impose a nationwide development ban on any company that refuses to comply.
