Kirkstall Road: Chancellor Rachel Reeves describes 'huge potential' in Leeds for building new homes
New homes would breathe life into derelict sites in Leeds, the Chancellor has said in an exclusive interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Speaking at Number 11 Downing Street, she argued that there could be “exciting opportunities” to build in the west of the city, singling out parcels of land near Kirkstall Road and Armley among the areas for potential redevelopment.
It comes after the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey committed her party to building 1.5 million homes over the next five years. She has previously spoken about the need to reform the planning system in order to reach that target.
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Mrs Reeves told the YEP: “There is huge potential in Leeds, including around Kirkstall Road. There are really exciting opportunities in that bit of the city centre where there's a lot of derelict land that could be used for building, and moving the city westwards.
“There are also massive opportunities for building new homes at Kirkstall Forge. The priority of this government around housebuilding is to ensure that some of these projects that have been around for a while get lift-off.”
Although the Chancellor reiterated that the approach to housebuilding would be “brownfield first”, she set out earlier this year how the government would consider areas in the ‘grey belt’, which refers to unattractive or low-quality areas currently designated as green belt land.
Mrs Reeves continued: “It is the case that there are some parts of the so-called greenbelt that are not green and are not nature rich, and we can be developing those to build the houses that people need.
“I look around Leeds and there is a lot of potential in urban areas and former industrial areas. Look at some of the derelict sites in Armley, for example. There are opportunities for housebuilding that would be very much welcome if it breathes new life into former industrial sites.”
In her keynote speech at the Labour Party conference yesterday (September 23), Mrs Reeves vowed to continue “ripping out the blockages” in the planning system in order to hit the government’s goals.
These have previously been outlined as measures such as reintroducing mandatory housebuilding targets for local authorities and rewriting policy documents that set out planning rules in England.
She told the conference in Liverpool: “What you will see, in your town, in your city, is a sight we have not seen often enough in our country. Shovels in the ground. Cranes in the sky. The sounds and the sights of the future arriving. We will make that a reality.”
Mrs Reeves added that some changes have already been introduced, including lifting a ban on onshore wind schemes.
In her interview with the YEP, the Chancellor also spoke about crime rates following the launch of our Silent Crime campaign.
It is calling on the government, police and other authorities to take action on crimes that go unreported or unsolved for a variety of reasons.
Mrs Reeves reaffirmed her party’s commitment to putting 13,000 more neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs back on Britain’s streets in plans that she said would make criminals feel less confident in their illegal activities.
She also said that having more bobbies on the beat would make residents in the city feel more comfortable about making reports.