MP who lives with parents calls for more housing

Ben Goldsborough, Labour MP for South Norfolk, said he previously left the county because he could not afford to live there

An MP who lives at home with his parents has called for new housing developments.

Ben Goldsborough, the Labour MP for South Norfolk, said he wanted to see more homes built across his constituency after he moved into his parents' home in Snetterton.

His call follows opposition against plans for new houses in towns and villages in the area.

Mr Goldsborough, 33, said he believed people would not be encouraged "to get on the property ladder" without new homes.

'System is backwards'

"I’m pro more housing and think we need to encourage people to get on the property ladder – we’re taking away that aspiration if we don’t build more homes," he explained.

Recent plans for new housing in places such as Loddon and Bracon Ash have drawn opposition from locals who said schools and GP surgeries were already stretched to their limits.

The Labour government intends to increase the rate of housebuilding and remove barriers in the planning system to allow large-scale developments to go ahead.

Mr Goldsborough, who is originally from Suffolk, recently finished a spell as mayor of Flint, in north Wales, where he was a member of the town council, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He has lately called on the government to reform planning laws due to people living in Hethersett, Mulbarton and Loddon being "burned" by housing without the infrastructure to meet the needs of the community.

"The system is so backwards and a lot of unscrupulous developers get a huge opportunity with these rules," he added.

"We need to flip the system – not stop building quality housing."

Mr Goldsborough said he hoped to find his own home in south Norfolk soon – but had prioritised finding a constituency office first.

Balancing opposing views

The average age of a first-time home buyer in the UK is 33, which happens to be the same age as Mr Goldsborough. So the Labour MP is well placed to understand the need for new housing.

His party has just made housebuilding one of its main priorities in government, with a goal to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.

As part of that aim local councils will be given mandatory housebuilding targets, which has not gone down well in Norfolk. Campaign groups have raised concerns over plans for more than 49,000 new homes in the Norwich area over the next 15 years.

Mr Goldsborough has correctly identified the need among young people for more affordable housing. Yet he would also know that there were many voters who were worried about the expansion of their communities and the impact on local services and the countryside.

How to balance those opposing views will be one of the big issues in Norfolk, and particularly Mr Goldborough’s South Norfolk constituency, over the next few years.