POLITICS: Adam Chinnery: Too many Conservatives accept we need more housing nationally – but oppose it locally – USSA News

Cllr Adam Chinnery is a councillor for Hutton East on Brentwood Borough Council.

I was elected as a councillor in 2024 in a tight race at the age of 23 and am around 35 years younger than the average Councillor. I also work a full-time corporate job in London alongside my council duties.

Being both a Councillor and a young professional is rewarding and frustrating in equal measure. It is genuinely fulfilling to bring an analytical mindset developed in my line of work to scrutinising reports in a Committee, or to offer a different perspective at Full Council and group meetings. Yet it has also left me with a growing concern: I increasingly feel as though I am living in two very different Britains.

On one evening, I may be speaking with residents or fellow Councillors, many of whom are over 50, financially secure, and deeply rooted in the community after decades of home ownership in the affluent suburban area I represent. The next day, I will be talking with colleagues in London, most under forty, who have little idea how they will ever afford a home, where they might live long-term, or how they will start a family despite often paying the higher rate of income tax and earning above median incomes.

This contrast is striking, and it helps explain why Britain now suffers from such a pronounced generational divide. If we are serious about restoring intergenerational fairness and winning over working-age people to the centre-right, we must first be honest about the scale and causes of the housing crisis.

Since the 1990s, when many councillors in my Borough were already established on the property ladder, housing costs have risen far faster than incomes. Various studies show that average house prices have roughly doubled relative to earnings over this period. Research from the Centre for Policy Studies, for example, found that rents in London increased from around 15 per cent of household income in the 1980s to approximately 40 per cent by 2021. This reflects a national housing shortage that is now estimated at around five million homes.

Demand has clearly risen over time, driven mainly by sustained high levels of legal immigration across two decades. But focusing solely on demand misses the central point: Britain has failed miserably to build enough homes. Reducing the crisis to rhetoric about recent arrivals is neither accurate nor helpful. The real issue is long-term undersupply.

In the Council Chamber, I have been explicit about the need to increase housing supply, using these facts. Encouragingly, this has been met with respect across party lines, and many Councillors privately agree with the need to deliver more housing locally.

I was surprised particularly by some of the private praise from Liberal Democrats, as they now begrudgingly implement a local development plan they fiercely campaigned against. That plan, developed under a Conservative administration, was not perfect — no plan ever is — but it was serious, evidence-based, and far stronger than many adopted elsewhere.

However, there has been a tendency among some Conservatives I’ve met across the country who are in opposition at a local level to agree privately about the need to “build, baby, build” at a national level, while doing their best to oppose development locally for short-term political gain. This inconsistency worries me as it is easy to spot. I’m sure those who engage closely with planning applications will have the attention to detail to quickly recognise the mixed messaging, and it risks undermining trust as we attempt to rebuild it after our resounding electoral defeat in 2024.

Of course, Councillors care deeply about the places they represent, and many fear that supporting development risks betraying residents’ concerns. But evidence matters here too. In a comprehensive residents’ survey conducted in my ward, concerns over development ranked below issues such as highways, crime, waste collection, litter, and the quality of local shops and businesses.

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That does not mean residents are always indifferent to development, but it does suggest that the debate is often dominated by a small, highly motivated minority. While I respect Councillors who oppose specific applications on legitimate planning grounds, we must be honest about the wider picture. The most direct solution of that remains building more homes.

Ultimately, the changes required will be delivered at a national level. Planning reform through Acts of Parliament must be central to the Conservatives policy renewal. While increased density is preferable to unchecked urban sprawl, the scale of the shortage means that responsibility cannot simply be assigned to Labour’s catastrophic failures in major cities; every area in Britain will need to accept more development and Labour’s 1.5 million homes in a Parliament target will need to be exceeded.

Despite this challenge, I remain optimistic. Groups such as Onward’s Conservative YIMBY movement are contributing serious, policy-driven solutions, from a thoughtful London Plan to a practical Candidates’ Handbook that I highly recommend reading. This is not just keyboard activism, but a growing body of work aimed at making Conservatives credible advocates for housebuilding again. The work of the Representative Planning Group is also fascinating, as Representative Planning allows for robust community engagement without the risk of tyranny from a loud minority.

Writing this article has helped me organise my thoughts as a bounce between the Britains of old and young over a week. As we assess Labour’s attempts and learn from successful housing reforms overseas, I look forward to contributing further to the case for a Conservative Party that once again earns its reputation as the party of homeownership and, in doing so, restores opportunity for current and future working-age generations.  

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