Greens leave council coalition over housing policy

The Green Party on Swale council has left the ruling coalition group over Labour's housing policies. Gabriel Morris reports.

Transcript

00:00Controversial proposals for thousands of homes and Labour's plan to ramp up house building

00:05have seen the Green Party stepping out of Swell Borough Council's coalition.

00:12The announcement last week, Labour's revisions to the national planning policy framework

00:17have just made us feel that it's no longer compatible with our views as a party and as

00:22a group. There's too much prioritisation of profit for developers, not enough thought

00:29given to affordable, genuinely affordable housing, social rented housing.

00:34The decision this week heightened by controversy surrounding plans to build more than 8,000

00:39homes on these fields. The council were set to refuse the Hystead Park development to

00:44the east of Sittingbourne, but just three hours before the meeting, the government called

00:49it in, putting the decision into their hands. And the reason for the intervention became

00:54clear last week. It emerged the newly elected MP personally requested it. He's defended

01:00his position by saying he won't apologise. Kevin McKenna has a majority of around 350

01:06votes, one of the smallest in the country. How popular is he now with his constituents?

01:13Don't interfere with the local government. Local government deal with local events. It's

01:17as simple as that. Because what's the next thing he's going to do if he decides to overstep

01:21the council and overstep local people who have lived here for many years? In the end,

01:27I think, you know, there's a lot of resistance to housing, but unfortunately it's got to

01:32come and I don't like it any more than anybody else. So with the Greens now leaving the coalition,

01:38what does this mean for Swale Borough Council? Purely technical level, we still have a majority,

01:44but the independents aren't whipped. We cannot be guaranteed that we will all vote the same

01:49way if different parts of the borough are affected differently. So, it narrows down

01:56the room in which Labour can move. The authority runs a committee model, with decisions needing

02:04a broad consensus. The Labour leader told us he understands the Greens' decision and

02:10says they've always worked collaboratively and look forward to continuing cross-party

02:14collaboration. Councillor Tim Gibson went on to say that the local Labour group position

02:19remains unchanged in being not in favour of the Heistad proposals. And those controversial

02:25plans will be going to a public inquiry next year. Gabriel Morris in Sittingbourne.