Labour has promised to maintain the 60% brownfield and minimum density targets for housing in its election document A Green Future for All, but is sticking to its plans to enforce greenfield land releases according to its separate document Labour's Plan for Housing.
The green manifesto says the Party would protect Britain's natural areas and notes that it introduced the brownfield housing target where the figure currently stands at 75%. It says this has protected the countryside and helped the renaissance of urban areas, but while its housing manifesto makes no mention of its earlier target to build 240,000 homes a year in England, it attacks the Conservatives for not having a target and warns this could cause unemployment and drive house prices down 20%.
"The Tories have called on their councils to block building and block growth, spreading uncertainty among industry and threatening the recovery," says the housing manifesto. "Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman has written to Tory council leaders inciting them to block housing developments and cutting the ground from under the building industry."
The housing manifesto says a Labour government would take stronger steps to ensure planning authorities have a five year land supply for housing and withhold housing and planning delivery grant where they didn't do what they were told.
"We are streamlining the planning system and committing to consider and implement any new regulations at fixed intervals," it says.
The green manifesto, however, says that although more housing is needed, we also need farmers to produce more food and more space will have to be left for flooding. Beautiful landscapes and wildlife habitats also have to be protected.
It promises a comprehensive assessment of Britain's natural resources within two years and a white paper on action that should follow. It also says it will respond to the current Lawton review of habitats with new proposals for protected areas, focusing on green corridors and wildlife networks to link up existing sites.
