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Housebuilders must be held to account over broken promises regarding news schools, doctors’ surgeries and transport infrastructure, Ribble Valley MP Maya Ellis has claimed.
Speaking to Blog Preston for a wider interview that will be published soon, she also reiterated her commitment to tackling ongoing problems on the M6 motorway and the traffic chaos that caused around Preston on an all-too-frequent basis.
Almost a year into her tenure as the borough’s first ever Labour MP, Maya’s diverse constituency takes in the mainly rural Ribble Valley, as well urban areas such as Fulwood, Lostock Hall and Bamber Bridge.
And with places such as Longridge, Broughton, north Preston and parts of South Ribble seeing a huge rise in new homes in recent years, how could house builders be held to greater account when it came to what many residents felt was a lack of investment in wider local infrastructure.
She said: “Government has to play a really strong role in demanding that [infrastructure investment] from local authorities in their local plans and requiring that of developers. It is also about holding them to account, so when they commit to a certain amount of social housing and affordable housing they stick to it. It’s a very live conversation about how you best make that happen.”
She also suggested that a Lancashire-wide approach to house building could be key to preventing more rural constituencies, such as Ribble Valley, from shouldering too much of the house building burden.
“There’s a really live conversation in Lancashire around the fact that it’s obviously more appealing for house builders to build in the likes of the Ribble Valley so they can get higher house prices,” she said.
“If we had more leadership across Lancashire what we should see, or what I would like to see, is some of the other town centres, the likes of Blackburn and Accrington for example, being invested in so they become more desirable and house builders are more inclined to build there as well.”
She acknowledged, however, that it wasn’t just about location but also ensuring that key services such as school places, availability of doctors and transport links were also prioritised.
She said: “It is not just about the amount of social housing, affordable stock or where houses are built, but crucially [it is about] infrastructure such as schools, doctors, dentists and existing roads creaking under the strain of an influx of people.
“The infrastructure piece was probably the number one thing I picked up on doorsteps during the election. That Section 106 money that the developer has to pay to support infrastructure has materialised in some situations, for example Longridge’s Berry Lane Medical Centre doubling in size, but in others it hasn’t and I’m still trying to unpick in certain situations why that money doesn’t seem to have gone to the right place.”
Where the M6 was concerned, she said there was no easy fix but creative solutions that linked the wider Preston road network in with other capital projects could be an area to explore.
She said: “You’ve only got to see the delays that happen in Preston, or on the M6. It’s great if you can get a nice house, but if you have to then sit in a car for two hours every morning I completely understand that’s going to wear your life down more than any other big policy issue. That’s why it’s a big priority for me to work out how we optimise things and make it better. The bridge [over the Ribble] on the other side of Preston is a compelling option, but my understanding is it would be quite a stretch to get government to fund that.
“Therefore, I’m interested to explore, for example, the proposals around Royal Preston Hospital and moving it from the north to the south of Preston. Is there an argument to say that if we do that, we’re going to need more infrastructure to support that so you are making it part of a bigger proposal for central Lancashire. It’s then not just one area asking for support and infrastructure, it’s about it being one of the big asks for Lancashire.”
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