.
Labour Party review calls for 200,000 new homes
Reforms to the planning process, including giving local councils the power to compulsorily purchase land for house building, are at the centre of a report published by the Labour Party. The report follows a review by a team of housing experts, led by Sir Michael Lyons, into planning and other policies which impact on house-building.
It calls for 200,000 new homes a year to be built to meet the demand for housing. Lyons acknowledges the problems faced by governments in trying to increase the supply of affordable new homes, as this can damage the economic interests of existing householders and landowners, but argues that strong leadership is needed from government if the ‘biggest housing crisis in a generation’ is going to be solved (see page 3 of this issue).
Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry made a robust defence of the judiciary at the Battle of Ideas debate ‘Judge rule: is the law taking over politics?’
Legal Action Group was one of this year’s sponsors of the event, which is organised annually by the Institute of Ideas. Speaking on a panel of lawyers, which included barrister Jon Holbrook, formerly of Garden Court Chambers, Thornberry dismissed the notion of ‘judicial activism’. UK judges are deferential to the supremacy of parliament, she said. She warned, however, that Conservative plans to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with a ‘British Bill of Privileges’ would lead to ‘judges becoming political in ways they haven’t been until now’. Such a move would be ‘dangerous and reckless’.