Housing Secretary Steve Reed has accused the Green Party of hypocrisy on housing, claiming it publicly champions renters while trying to block new developments.

Speaking ahead of May’s local elections, Reed told the Evening Standard: “The Greens talk about the housing crisis, but when it comes to actually building homes, they oppose, delay or vote them down.”

He says Green politicians campaign on the scale of the housing shortage and present themselves as advocates for renters in London.

Fairness and the housing

“They turn up to marches. They post statements. They talk about fairness and the housing crisis.”

Reed adds, however, that their record in local planning decisions shows opposition to “at least 49,000” homes in the capital, including social and affordable schemes.

This was “not a one-off,” but a pattern, with regeneration schemes resisted and planning applications challenged across London boroughs, slowing delivery of new housing supply.

Politics that treats development as something to resist, rather than something to shape and deliver.”

This approach, he said, is “a politics that treats development as something to resist, rather than something to shape and deliver.”

“You cannot claim to stand for renters while opposing the homes renters need.”

The consequences, he points out, were felt by families in temporary accommodation, where children do homework on beds and parents try to create stability in single rooms.

“You don’t live in temporary accommodation for years. You live one week, over and over again.

“If you are not willing to build the homes people need, you are choosing to leave families in precarity.”