Chesham and Amersham candidates spar over Labour’s ‘assault’ on Green Belt

Chesham and Amersham general election candidates have clashed over Labour’s apparent plans for a housebuilding ‘assault’ on the Green Belt if the party comes to power in the July 4 vote.

The constituency’s Conservative MP hopeful Gareth Williams warned against giving Labour a ‘blank cheque’ to undertake a review of Green Belt land, planning reforms and a huge programme of building new homes ‘from day one’.

His warning comes after The Sunday Times reported that Labour leader Keir Starmer and his prospective chancellor Rachel Reeves would target the Green Belt to build new homes ‘within days’ of entering government.

Williams, who is a Bucks councillor, claimed that Chesham and Amersham had the most to lose from a Labour supermajority, with some 81.3 per cent of the constituency’s land designated Green Belt.

He said: “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.

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“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.”

He added that the Conservatives have delivered 2.5 million homes since 2010 and are committed to building another 1.6 million over the next Parliament, saying that these homes would be ‘built in the right places’.

Williams’ Labour election rival Chris Chilton pointed out that it was the Labour Party which created the Green Belt through the Town and Country Planning Act in 1947.

The legislation was introduced to help rebuild Britain in the years after the Second World War and gave local authorities new powers to help control urban sprawl into the countryside.

Chilton claimed Labour was the ‘only party that can be trusted’ to protect the Green Belt and referred to its manifesto commitment to creating nine new national river walks, three new national forests and to expanding protected wetlands, peat bogs and forests.

He told the Bucks Free Press: “Additionally, we will indeed build 1.5 million new affordable homes in the next five years as these are desperately needed by people in their 20’s and 30’s who can currently only dream of buying their own home.

“To do this, we will take a brownfield first approach, prioritising the development of previously used land and fast-tracking approval of urban brownfield sites.”

In April, Labour pledged to preserve the Green Belt, while also pursuing the release of what it called ‘Grey Belt’ land for housing development.

The term refers to lower quality strips of land, some of which are car parks or waste ground, which currently have protected Green Belt status.

The other Chesham and Amersham candidates are Sarah Green (Lib Dems), Justine Fulford (Green Party), Laurence Jarvis (Reform UK), Muhammad Pervez Khan (Workers Party of Britain) and Julian Foster (Heritage Party).

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