Under new targets set by the Government, the county will have to build 1,649 new homes a year in a bid to tackle the country’s housing crisis.
Northumberland County Council’s previous target was 549, representing a 200.4 per cent increase – although the council has built an average of 1,552 homes each year since 2016/17.
The Conservative-led administration at County Hall has heavily criticised the new targets, particularly as cities such as Newcastle and London have seen targets fall. Deputy leader Cllr Richard Wearmouth accused North East Mayor Kim McGuinness of being a “doormat” for the Government.
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Cllr Wearmouth said: “Mayor McGuinness took to the press over the weekend telling Northumberland residents that they and their representatives should stop finding ways to complain about housing targets imposed on us by Keir Starmer as it’s ‘not going to solve the problem’.
“Sadly Kim is backing the wrong horse with Keir Starmer and his failing Labour government. Our residents are right.
“There is no justification to build houses equivalent to a town the size of Cramlington in Northumberland in the coming years whilst housing targets in Newcastle and London are slashed. We don’t need a doormat mayor, we need Kim to stand up for our residents and when she does we will back her – she has our word on that.
“But this is just plain wrong. It piles pressure on our services and creates a housing developer free for all, the result of which will only be chaos.”
Cllr Wearmouth said the issue was already being brought up on the doorsteps ahead of local elections in May. He pledged that any future Tory-led council would “fight” to stop Northumberland “being concreted over”.
The comments came after Labour Mayor Ms McGuinness told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the North East faced a “social housing emergency”, adding “finding ways to complain about the target is not going to solve the problem”.
Responding to Cllr Wearmouth’s comments, she said: “With 70,000 people on social housing waiting lists, I will not stand by and see local people locked out of the warm, secure, and affordable homes they need.
“This is about more than bricks and mortar – it’s about providing security and opportunity to people who live here and keeping families, our villages, towns and cities together and strong. The devolution white paper gives us more control and say in how and where new homes are built.
“We need to work together so all areas of the North East provide the homes and services people need – dismissing housebuilding and making political points about targets does not help a single family in our region but we do need to include communities in the choices we make, from local authorities upwards. My focus is on delivering for the people of the North East.”
As of last summer, there were just over 14,000 people on Northumberland’s housing register. Of these, 8,200 were in Band 3 and deemed as “already adequately housed”.