The Labour minister in charge of housing and planning has been caught on video seemingly dismissing his party’s own policy of building more homes to bring down prices. Matthew Pennycook also lambasted the pro-housing YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) movement as a “conservative phenomenon”, despite many Labour-aligned voters supporting the agenda.
The clip, when Mr Pennycook was the shadow minister for housing, saw him condemn members of the YIMBY movement for “piling on” to him on social media for objecting to planning applications in his London constituency. He added: “I’m sure you’ll all have come across this phenomenon called the ‘YIMBY’ phenomenon, but I get an incredible pile-on whenever I object on the basis of what I think are entirely reasonable grounds to developments that aren’t appropriate, don’t have sufficient amenities, which contain 100% private luxury towers etc.”
“I think that criticism comes from the idea, which is very much a conservative idea, very much in flavour with particularly the last housing minister [Robert Jenrick] … that if we just liberalise the planning system and build as many houses as possible – it doesn’t matter what tenure they are, doesn’t matter what kind of developments and communities they’re part of – that will bring prices down.”
At the last General Election, the Labour Party pledged to liberalise Britain’s planning rules in order to build more homes and bring down prices.
Reacting to the leaked clip, Mr Pennycook’s Tory opposite said it proved how out of touch Labour is.
Paul Holmes said: “Labour ministers prove every single day how out of touch and out of their depth they are. Sadly, even if Labour do meet their targets, all the new homes would be filled with migrants, not British citizens.
“They have lost control of our borders and British people are paying the price.”
Simon Dudley, former chairman of Homes England, told the Express: “I worked with Matthew as chair of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation and this confirms what many of us at the time knew – he has absolutely no interest in building the homes Britain needs.”
A Labour spokesperson insisted: “Labour have done more to get Britain building in 12 months than the Tories managed in 14 years.
“The Tories abandoned mandatory house building targets and drove housing supply off a cliff.
“The Deputy Prime Minister and housing minister have put their words into action – through our Plan for Change we are undertaking the biggest overhaul of the planning system in a generation, introducing the landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill, and delivering a generational boost in funding for social and affordable homes.
Last week, the Express revealed that Labour’s own YIMBY caucus circulated a briefing ahead off the election warning that Mr Pennycook is at odds with the party’s housing policy.
The leaked dossier expressed concerns about Mr Pennycook commitment to the party’s official policy platform, and his relationship with so-called ‘NIMBY’ groups. The report warned that Mr Pennycook had “publicly taken a position against YIMBYism. He framed the YIMBY vs NIMBY debate as ‘reductive’ on a panel at Labour Conference in 2023″.
They also accused Mr Pennycook of “resorting to misinformed derision and simplistic sloganeering” instead of addressing key issues around the housing crisis, such as the need to “back the builders not the blockers”, and concluded that he was “at odds with the leadership” on the crucial issue.