The Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government

By e-mail

9^th August 2019

Dear Secretary of State,

We welcome you to your new role and write in the hope that, as a fresh pair of eyes, you can look again at the Government’s housing figures your predecessor asked local authorities to meet in local plans.

The second draft of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) removed a substantial amount of green belt from proposed development, but too much green belt is still allocated in order to meet the Government’s demanding numbers. Your predecessor told us these were not targets, but as Greater Manchester has already been penalised to the tune of tens of millions of pounds worth of housing related investment as a result of reducing its figures from 227,000 homes to 201,000 homes, it is hard to see them as anything else.

We would like the Government to reconsider its opposition to using the 2016 ONS household projection figures as the basis of calculating housing need. The 2014 figures the Government has insisted authorities use are out of date Indeed the 2016 figures will soon be out of date when the 2018 figures are published. The latest assessment of need should be the basis of housebuilding figures, not an overblown political target.

We are deeply concerned about protecting our green belt for future generations and we urge you to review the existing policy.

Best wishes,

James Frith, MP for Bury North

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton & Reddish

Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley & Eccles South

Angela Rayner, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne

Tony Lloyd, MP for Rochdale

Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East

Afzal Khan, MP for Manchester Gorton

Yvonne Fovargue, MP for Makerfield

Liz McInnes, MP for Heywood & Middleton

Ivan Lewis, MP for Bury South

Ruth George, MP for High Peak