Labour is relying on a series of doubtful policy advisers on housing, one of which declared that supply and demand don’t exist in the housing market. Good luck getting to that 1.5 million target, Angela (or successor)…
Catriona Riddell, who is known well to MHCLG’s civil servants, has held various planning roles and was “a freelance adviser to the Labour Party in the run-up to the 2024 general election.” She currently boasts on LinkedIn of having “chaired a national Strategic Planning Group… to advise Government on the new system of spatial development strategies, working closely with MHCLG, PINs and others.” Wonder what this freelance Labour adviser thinks about the housing market…
Riddell’s X is packed full of posts praising Labour housing minister Matthew Pennycook. In 2021 she argued:
“You can’t make housing affordable in high cost areas by boosting supply – it doesn’t work that way. But councils can – and are – taking direct action to boost more affordable housing supply.”
Typical illiterate planning fare. In advising Labour Riddell joins former head of policy at Shelter UK Kate Webb, who has been hired this week from Sadiq Khan’s advisory team to work as a No10 SpAd on housing. Webb, who has has advocated for mass use of compulsory purchase orders, said to fix the housing crisis you should “make it easier for local authorities and other bodies who are serious about building to get land at a price that allows the development of affordable homes” involving “reform of land values.” In her position at Shelter she congratulated George Osborne for his pernicious tax reforms because he made it “much less advantageous to be a landlord.” Look how that’s turned out…
In a sign of the quality of its advice Labour is handing hated quango Natural England a veto via amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure bill. Curiously Schedule 27 of the English Devolution Bill allows for local authorities to designate land and assets as “community assets,” perform their own valuation, and force a sale at a reduced rate to a “preferred community interest group.” Might as well form collectives and be done with it…
![Gavin Newsom Threatens to 'Punch These Sons of B*thces in the Mouth' [WATCH]](https://www.right2024.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Gavin-Newsom-Threatens-to-Punch-These-Sons-of-Bthces-in-350x250.jpg)
![ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Influencer During Her Livestream in Los Angeles: ‘You Bet We Did’ [WATCH]](https://www.right2024.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ICE-Arrests-Illegal-Alien-Influencer-During-Her-Livestream-in-Los-350x250.jpg)
![Black BET Billionaire Donor Stuns Democrats, Gives $500K to Winsome Earle-Sears [WATCH]](https://www.right2024.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Black-BET-Billionaire-Donor-Stuns-Democrats-Gives-500K-to-Winsome-350x250.jpg)
