Labour slammed for ‘depriving city of new investment’ after axing house planning office – ‘Deeply angered’

Labour has been slammed over their decision to shut down a planning office in Stoke-on-Trent with a former Tory MP claiming it would “deprive the area”.

Last year the former Conservative Government announced that the Office for Place (OfP) would become an arm’s length body, responsible for quality of design in new housing developments, and would be based in Stoke-on-Trent.

However, Labour has now chosen to break up the OfP and redeploy its staff within the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government across the country.

Johnathan Gullis said he was deeply angered at the decision to close the Office for Place claiming it would deprive the city of opportunities.

The former MP for Stoke-on-Trent North told GB News: “I’m deeply angered by the decision of this Labour Government to once again deprive Stoke on Trent of not just new investment, but also new high skilled highways jobs.

“[These jobs] would have played a crucial role in helping not just our city but the country, in coming up with beautifully designed buildings in fitting with the character of the community, and ensuring that those homes are built to the highest possible standards.

“This plan was massive for Stoke-on-Trent because we are a city that has a wide variety of beautiful listed buildings that require the best brains in the industry to support our local council and our local community to come up with the ideas for how to revive them.

“By having those experts shipped out of our city, that once again burdens more on the shoulders of the local authority, as well as once again depriving Stoke-on Trent of the opportunity to be a place that’s firmly put on the map by the Government and therefore be easily overlooked, as it was for 70 ruinous years under Labour rule, either the national level or by the council.”

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Paris police launch tear gas and beat pro-Palestinian protesters with batons in clash
• Pensions to be overhauled by Reeves in ‘biggest reforms in decades’: ‘Grave mistake!’
• Elon Musk reacts to Nigel Farage’s shock GB News interview with journalist Allison Pearson

The announcement comes less than three months after the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said that it was “committed to keeping the Office for Place in Stoke-on-Trent.”

The 34-year-old then criticised the effectiveness of the housing planning system. Gullis said: “I think we all know that there’s been a severe lack of efficiency in the planning system for a long period of time.

“They are depriving local authorities the opportunity to work with industry experts to come up with designs that would have ensured that developers for the future have a very clear understanding of what is desired by a local community in terms of look, in terms of build that I think are important.

“I don’t see how some civil servants in Whitehall are going to have a better understanding than experts on the ground in places like Stoke-on-Trent in terms of how to turn communities around when those civil servants are very unlikely ever put stood to their feet on Stoke-on-Trent soil.”

Minister for Housing and Planning Matthew Pennycook told GB News: “As the Government acts to significantly boost housing supply, we are determined to take steps to improve the design and quality of the homes and neighbourhoods being built.

“Having taken time to consider how this can best be achieved and alongside spending decisions taken at the Budget, we have concluded this work can be more efficiently and effectively delivered within the department and Homes England.

“I would like to thank Nicholas Boys Smith and his team for their exemplary work in putting design and quality at the heart of the housing supply agenda and establishing the principles of design coding and embedding them in practice across the planning and development sectors.”