Nigel Farage’s Reform UK hit out at Tory councils as it announced plans to build upwards in London to ease the housing crisis.
With less than a month to go before the May local elections, Mr Farage unveiled part of Reform’s housing strategy for the capital to stop younger Londoners being “trapped in permanent renting”.
Many Londoners are paying a huge proportion of their wages on rent, some more than £1,000 a month for a room in a shared flat or house.
Key points of Reform’s proposals include:
* Building upwards “where appropriate” to create tens of thousands new homes, with new infrastructure
* Protecting the Green Belt
* Speed up planning decisions
* Remove restrictive environmental requirements
* Reward developers who deliver homes quickly and efficiently
* Fast-track brownfield approvals
Reform UK initially sought to turn the May elections into a “referendum” on Sir Sadiq Khan’s record as London Mayor, with home building having almost ground to a halt in many parts of the capital.
But Mr Farage’s party is seeking to win councils in outer London, mainly from the Conservatives, and not Labour.
So as parties geared up for the local elections, Reform turned its fire onto the Tories as Mr Farage visited south London.
Key targets are Bromley, Bexley, Havering, Hillingdon, Croydon, as well as Barking and Dagenham, where Reform hopes to make significant gains and win control of some councils.
Reform’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, a Westminster councillor who defected from the Tories, said: “The Conservatives in London have completely betrayed the next generation.
“Despite calling themselves the party of home ownership, Tory councils have trapped young Londoners in permanent renting.”
She added: “It now takes years to get planning approved.
“Projects stall, costs spiral, and developers simply walk away. Layer upon layer of regulation has turned housebuilding into a bureaucratic obstacle course.
“The result is obvious: fewer homes, higher prices, and a generation locked out all to please NIMBY Tories.”
Reform was seeking to get on the front foot on the homes crisis just days after its new housing spokesman was sacked after he made “shameful” comments about the Grenfell Tower fire.
Simon Dudley had said the deadly 2017 blaze was a "tragedy", but that "everyone dies in the end".
The former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation added that the pendulum had "swung too far the wrong way" on regulation after the inferno at the west London tower block in which 72 people lost their lives.
Mr Farage said Mr Dudley had been removed from his post after acting "in a pretty hurtful, insulting way to an awful lot of people”.
Reform is targeting council seats across London.
Local government expert Professor Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics, believes Mr Farage’s party could make hundreds of gains, as could Zack Polanski’s Green Party.
The Greens, after storming to victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election, are threatening to oust Labour from overall control in a string of councils in the capital, and may even take power in some, particularly in Inner London.
Just over 1,800 council seats in London are being contested, with elections in all boroughs, and Prof Travers says Labour could lose around 600, or half that it currently holds.
Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives are seeking to regain Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet, lost to Labour the last time these elections were fought in 2022.
The Liberal Democrats, under Sir Ed Davey, are targeting becoming the biggest party on Merton council, or even winning overall control.
