Yorkshire’s housing boss’s call for a change in the government’s approach

Ahead of this week’s Budget, Mr Atkin said Yorkshire Housing welcomed the Government’s “ambition” to build as many homes as possible.

However, he said this would mean the number of new buildings would have to rise to numbers not seen since the end of the Second World War, and that would mean a different approach to investment by the government.

Mr Atkin said: “We are calling for this funding to be rolled out over ten years and reclassified as infrastructure spending, in the same way the government funds roads, railways, hospitals and schools.”

During the general election campaign, Labor had floated the idea of ​​building on the ‘grey belt’ – land within the green belt but on the edge of an existing settlement, or land that had previously been developed.

But Mr Atkin said one of the main obstacles to building houses is the lack of available land – and there may be a need to build on green belt land.

“We need to clarify what gray band is, but that’s not really the problem,” he said.

‘Even if we built on every piece of brownfield (former industrial or inner-city) land in the north of England, we would only create 230,000 homes.

“If you look at the government’s ambition of 1.5 million homes, there is a need for a truly honest conversation about where those homes will be built.”