London Tory Candidate Says "Corrosive" NIMBYism Must Be Defeated

Alex Deane, the Tory party candidate in the north London constituency of Finchley and Golders Green, told PoliticsHome he believed a lack of housebuilding was making younger voters in particular have little faith that politics can help improve their lives.

Britain has a backlog of 4.3million homes, according to think tank Centre for Cities. Its research found the housing deficit would take at least half a century to fill even if the Tory Government’s current housing target to build 300,000 homes a year is reached.

Data from the Office for National Statistics estimated the average house price in London was the most expensive in any region of the UK, with a median price of £508,000 in December 2023. This is more than 11 times the average salary across all age groups in the city

Deane, a former political commentator, consultant and author, said it was imperative to get more young people on the housing ladder.

“We’ve got to give people somewhere to live, and NIMBYism is a corrosive force in politics. We’ve got to tackle it head on and say we believe we’re going to build more homes,” he said.

“It's a major reason younger people are put off politics, because they just don't feel society and the system works for them anymore."

Finchley and Golders Green, previously represented by Tory Mike Freer, is the only constituency within inner London which is in contention of remaining Conservative at the General Election, according to the latest MRP poll by YouGov. The survey put the Tories just one percentage point ahead of Labour there.

It is one of just six London seats which the Conservatives are projected to win in YouGov's latest research. All six are "closely contested" and in five Keir Starmer's Labour Party are within five percentage points, the pollster found — suggesting a total Tory collapse in the capital is a possibility when the country goes to the polls next week. 

Deane was optimistic that more housebuilding for younger people could help increase support for the Tories and help rebuild their brand in the long-term.

“The Conservative Party's got a proud role to play in urban politics. London not least,” he said. “We've got a whole new raft of work to convince younger urban voters that they should a) bother about politics at all, and then b) vote Conservative.

“It's the work of a generation to reconvince urban voters. Conservatives can be on their side.”

The Tories have been losing support in cities including London for a decade. It represents a wider trend for Rishi Sunak's party, which has been losing ground with younger, more socially liberal voters who disproportionately live in city centres and in the commuter belt. In May, the Tories lost their third successive London mayoral election when Labour's Sadiq Khan secured another term. 

Deane claimed he would like housebuilding to become a bi-partisan issue and a priority for whoever becomes the next government. “Whoever is in government has got to deliver more homes for young people,” he said.

Starmer's Labour is very likely to form the next government after 4 July, with opinion polls continuing to give the opposition party huge leads.

Deane used the example of housebuilding in Brent Cross Town in the London borough of Barnet, which has seen one of the largest rates of new homes being built in the country. Deane pointed out that a Conservative administration got the project off the ground before Labour took over the council and pledged to carry it on.

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