Housing Secretary James Brokenshire tried to block plans for 60 new homes in his seat
The MP opposed the plans in the South London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup but it was eventually successful
INCOMING Housing Secretary James Brokenshire was embarrassed last night after it emerged he tried to block plans for 60 new homes in his constituency last year.
His constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup was earmarked for up to 40 per cent more homes as part of his predecessor Sajid Javid’s drive to build 300,000 new homes a year.
Mr Brokenshire opposed plans for an application for 60 new homes in the south-east London seat. But the application was eventually successful.
Mr Brokenshire’s appointment as the new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government comes just weeks after he had a cancerous tumour removed from his right lung.
He quit as Northern Ireland Secretary in January ahead of the surgery.
His embarrassing nimbyism came as housing groups piled on the pressure for Mr Brokenshire to get a grip of the “biggest housing emergency in decades”.
Housing charity Shelter said: “With the lowest levels of social housebuilding since the second world war and rough sleeping is its highest for a decade, we hope the new Secretary of State will take the bold action needed to fix our broken housing market. We very much look forward to working with him to achieve this.”
National Housing Federation chief David Orr said: “Genuinely affordable homes are desperately needed. Though housing associations are committed to delivering on the government’s rightly ambitious house-building targets, they urgently need government to make more affordable land available to achieve this.”
Mr Brokenshire, 50, has been a close ally of the Prime Minister since serving under her from 2010-16 at the Home Office, where he was responsible for the crime prevention, security and immigration briefs.
He led negotiations that secured the deportation of Islamist militant Abu Qatada in 2013 after an eight-year battle.
The father-of-three was first appointed shadow minister for crime reduction by David Cameron in opposition in 2006.
Born in Southend-on-Sea, Mr Brokenshire studied law at Exeter University and worked for 13 years at international law firm Jones Day, where he became a partner.
He entered Parliament as MP for Hornchurch and Rainham in 2005, contesting his current seat at the next election after the constituency was abolished under boundary changes.
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Speaking shortly after his return to the Commons after cancer treatment, non-smoker Mr Brokenshire described how he was prompted to see his GP after coughing up a small amount of blood.
“I trusted my instincts because deep down I knew something really wasn’t right,” he said.
“I didn’t delay in going to see my GP, trusted his advice in seeing a consultant and followed things through.
“At each stage I could have left it - too busy with work, too busy with Brexit, too busy with the political talks in Northern Ireland. But I didn’t and it saved my life.”