Speaking at the Labour Party Conference’s housing fringe event, John Healey was asked if the party would look at loosening green belt to allow more homes to be built.

He said: "The party’s got an established policy on that. It’s in the manifesto - no change."

However, Healey said the party was still working on policy details in some areas to build on its May general election manifesto, which promised to create a new housing ministry as well as to preserve the green belt.

Two areas he revealed the party is looking at are the relationship between housing and health and between housing and older people. He said: "That’s part of what we’ll try to do over the next 6-12 months."

Healey indicated that, when it comes to housing, there might be limitations to the powers Labour would devolve from Whitehall.

He said: "If we were to give Cornwall Council big devolved freedoms, how far would you trust the Liberals and Tories down there to do the right thing on housing? This discussion [around devolution] has to include - what are the standards or requirements we set from the centre, alongside devolution?"

Also speaking at the event was James Murray, London’s deputy mayor for housing. Murray said that, because the capital's mayor Sadiq Khan also opposes building on green belt, it means "you have to have some pretty bold conversation about where you build instead".

He said in London, the mayor, in his draft housing strategy published earlier this month, has been discussing building at "much higher densities than has previously been the case" and "co-locating industrial and residential uses side by side if they’re near tube stations".

Murray said that land was "one of the centrepieces of our approach" in the housing strategy. He said: "This is a huge area where City Hall could have more active, interventionist and muscular role - stepping in to assemble land, to unblock sites that have stalled, to use compulsory purchase powers where necessary, and making sure land isn’t sitting there idle but being used productively for affordable housing."

New affordable housing supplementary planning guidance (SPG), published by the mayor in the summer and which encourages developers to meet a 35 per cent affordable housing threshold, has been well-received, Murray added.

He said: "This policy has gone down well across the board. We’ve been discussing it with developers and councils. People agree this is a good way forward. "

He added that there was a "gulf of affordability" in London, with 80 per cent of new homes affordable to just 8 per cent of Londoners.

Source: Planning Resource