'Disconnected from reality' MP calls for 'urgent review' of Dacorum housing targets
Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, has called on the prime minister to “urgently review” housing targets in her constituency.
During Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Ms Collins said the “top down” housing targets from the Government have almost doubled in Harpenden and Berkhamsted.
Since Labour came to power in 2024, the yearly housing target across St Albans city and district has increased from 885 to 1,660, while the target across Dacorum has risen from 1,016 to 1,355.
But Ms Collins warned Sir Keir Starmer that “supposedly affordable” new build homes in the area cost “more than half a million pounds” and that “communities like Redbourn and Tring are about to see huge scale development while infrastructure is bursting at the seams”.
At the last General Election, Labour’s manifesto promised to reintroduce mandatory housing targets and to build 1.5 million homes nationally in five years, while the Liberal Democrats said they would build 1.9 million across the same period, including 750,000 social homes.
Responding to Ms Collins, Sir Keir said: “We inherited a housing crisis with people unable to have the security of their own home, or even get onto the housing ladder.
“We are determined to change that [and] we have invested £39 billion to deliver more social and affordable homes, prioritising brownfield land.
“We must build more communities with strong infrastructure, but her party consistently votes against the planning reforms that will actually allow those homes to be built.”
After the exchange, Ms Collins said the housing targets were “completely disconnected from reality” and added that building affordable homes with necessary infrastructure meant “working with local areas, not imposing unrealistic expectations”.