Starmer 'is willing to stand up against populist trends to deliver on the big, difficult issues, and there’s none bigger than housing'.

Councillor Gavin Callaghan is the Labour leader of Basildon Council

The government has announced its plan to build 1.5 million homes by 2029. Most people say it can’t be done.

But this year marks Basildon’s 75th anniversary—a town built on ambition and a vision for a better future.

When I look back at the debates in Parliament in 1949 about creating the Basildon New Town, the arguments against it sound eerily familiar: too much loss of greenbelt, no infrastructure, these homes won’t be for local people, it’s all unaffordable, it can’t be done.

It’s a depressing reflection on how small our politics has become that, in 2024, figures like Piers Morgan are already betting against these homes ever being built. There’s so little faith in our ability to deliver.

Why? Because planning has become the bedrock of populism. In shire counties across the UK, if a housing development is controversial, nine times out of ten it gets blocked. Local councillors fold under pressure from vocal opposition, often fuelled by misinformation on social media and rolling news cycles. It’s easier to say “no” and keep people happy in the short term than to plan for the long-term good of our country.

I often wonder: if politicians in 1949 had faced today’s 24/7 media circus and relentless populist outrage, would Basildon have ever been built? Would we have built homes for returning war heroes? Would we have created the NHS to heal a country battered by war? Would we have built the welfare state to support people unable to work?

The answer in my mind is undoubtedly no.

The truth is, we’ve allowed populist politics and short-term thinking to paralyse housebuilding. And it’s been like this for 30 years. A Prime Minister standing up in 2024 and saying “We’re building these homes” was always going to be met with scepticism. But Labour should get behind it—because it can be done.

Those of us who deal with planning applications every week know that developers can build these homes. The private sector has the skills and the will. But we need a serious reform of the entire planning process. And let’s be honest—the Conservatives have had over a decade to fix it, and they’ve failed. We should also be honest in local government and acknowledge that we’ve had our chance to correct it and – outside of the major cities – we’ve not been good enough. There needs to be a proven alternative that can get to work immediately. The good news is that that alternative already exists.

The answer is development corporations.

Development corporations built the New Towns. They built places like Canary Wharf, which continues to thrive today. We need that same bold, coordinated approach—but on steroids. If we want to hit 1.5 million homes by 2029, we need empowered, well-funded development corporations making decisions quickly and driving projects forward. They need to be working closely with the pension funds, combined authorities and central government to release infrastructure funding quickly, so that building at scale can happen at pace. This is something individual councils of between 80,000 and 200,000 simply do not have the capacity to do on their own. A development corporation could.

And that is because it’s not just about homes—it’s about leadership.

Over the last decade, British politics has shifted. The Conservatives and their many offshoots—Reform UK, UKIP, the Brexit Party—have seized the mantle of insurgents, rebels, and change-makers. Labour, by contrast, has too often been painted as defenders of the status quo.

But that’s changing. In just six months, Keir Starmer has started flipping that narrative. He’s willing to stand up against populist trends to deliver on the big, difficult issues, and there’s none bigger than housing.

In my borough I have 10,000 20-34 year olds stuck living at home with their parents. These are young people from working class backgrounds, who don’t earn a king’s ransom and they can’t rely on the back of mum and dad for a deposit. A commitment to building these homes, at scale and at pace, with 50 per cent affordable, gives them hope. It gives them a chance. It’s why the Labour Party exists. 

I joined the Party almost twenty years ago, because as Tony Blair once said, “My heart beats progressive, and my soul will always belong to that of a rebel.”

I’m with Keir. Let’s build those homes—and build people’s futures.

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