- Paul Athans warns against giving Labour a blank cheque to carry out their plans to concrete over the Green Belt in Hazel Grove Constituency – ruining precious green spaces.
- This warning comes as Labour briefed The Sunday Times that their assault on the Green Belt will happen ‘within days’ of a Labour government – forcing councils to reclassify land and build on green spaces, irrespective of local objections.
- Paul Athans stresses that only Conservatives will build the right homes in the right places and help families onto the housing ladder with tax cuts on your first home.
Hazel Grove is one of several places which could be hit by Labour plans to build over the green belt.
In a briefing to The Sunday Times, Labour have announced that from ‘day one’ they would begin an all-out assault on the green belt.
Labour have pledged to publish a draft national planning policy framework; this would likely involve imposing ‘top down’ targets to ensure that councils are required to build a certain number of homes, irrespective of local support for them. Labour’s briefing also confirmed they would ‘review the green belt’.
Keir Starmer is already committed to ‘bulldoze’ national planning law and is expected to reclassify land protected as ‘green belt’ land – opening the door to concreting over the green belt without giving communities a say. These comments come just weeks after a Labour official claimed Labour would ‘flatten the whole green belt’.
Labour’s housebuilding assault is twofold. Not only have Labour promised to rip up the green belt, but they have also admitted first-time buyers will pay more Stamp Duty under Labour’s First-Time Buyers Tax. This means Labour will not only be building homes without local support, but they would be taxing families more who want to buy them.
The Conservatives have delivered 2.5 million homes since 2010 and are committed to building another 1.6 million over the next Parliament. These homes will be built in the right places, unlocking brownfield sites first to protect the green belt.
Commenting, Paul Athans, the Conservative candidate for Hazel Grove, said:
“Your vote on 4 July will determine if the Green Belt across our area is protected by the Conservatives or concreted over by Labour.
“If Labour are given a blank cheque, Keir Starmer has made clear his assault on the Green Belt will happen within days of their election – stripping local people in Hazel Grove Constituency their say over where houses are built in our area.
“We must not surrender our Green Belt to Labour, only the Conservatives will build the right homes in the right places and help families onto the housing ladder with tax cuts on your first home.
“A vote for anyone other than the Conservatives here in Hazel Grove Constituency will risk giving Keir Starmer a supermajority.
“The only way to protect our green spaces is to vote Paul Athans on 4th July.”
