Shadow minister calls on Tory councils to delay developments

The shadow communities secretary, Caroline Spelman, has written to Conservative MPs and councils advising them to delay housing and commercial developments.

In a letter, leaked to the Observer, she said the Tories would introduce a new local government and housing bill in its first year of office which would “revoke … in whole or in part” all of Labour’s regional development targets.

“[This] will put the brakes on elements of regional spatial strategies that [local authorities] find undesirable,” she writes.

She continues: “We would advise councils not to rush ahead with implement he controversial elements of regional spatial strategies [regional planning guidelines].”

But a conservative spokesman said the main point of the letter was to highlight Tory policy that would lead to more development: “We want to devolve power to the local communities so the provision can be made where it is needed [by] encouraging demand to be met,” he said. “Labour has failed to deliver on their housing targets.”

Grant Shapps, shadow housing minister, called Labour’s housing policy “top-down” and “Stalinist.”