New Housing Minister visits Medway following planning reforms

New Housing Minister Kit Malthouse has visited the Rochester Riverside development in Medway as the government attempts to future-proof the UK housing market.

Having announced a raft of planning reforms late last month, Malthouse toured the Medway residential development to meet with apprentices and experience first-hand how the build is helping to sustain the local economy. Since 2018, 400 of the 1,400 homes proposed have been built at Rochester Riverside, with Countryside Properties working in partnership with joint landowners Medway Council and Homes England.

“There are few missions more important than building more homes in the places that desperately need them,” said Malthouse. “Rochester Riverside is a great example of high quality, well designed homes with the infrastructure needed to create thriving communities that people want to live in. This is exactly what is at the heart of our new planning rule book which will help to deliver the 300,000 homes a year by the mid 2020s.”

Councillor Alan Jarrett, Leader of Medway Council, added: “We were delighted to welcome the new Minster of State for Housing, Kit Malthouse, to Medway and show him our flagship regeneration site, Rochester Riverside. Here we are undergoing a monumental regeneration programme and delivering developments across our five towns to provide new opportunities and growth for all our residents.”

Malthouse’s visit followed the launch of the National Planning Policy Framework, which outlined new requirements for the delivery of high quality homes. Communities are to be given a greater say over development proposals and tougher environmental protections are to be put in place to better safeguard wildlife and air quality nationwide.

Following on from the 217,000 homes built last year – the biggest increase in housing across England for almost a decade – the government has also reiterated its ambition to achieve 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s.

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