The long awaited White Paper on Housing is scheduled to be published today by the government. This could have major implications for us in Bury as we battle the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework ( GMSF). I am hoping the White Paper will contain proposals which will make it easier for us to contest the assumptions which Labour have made in arriving at the GMSF. In an attempt to blame the government for their own decision to propose mass development on greenbelt land Labour are claiming they have no choice because the figures on which the plan is based are given them by the government. This is only true to the extent that the Office for National Statistics produce projections for the future population which are then distributed by government departments together with housing projections. Labour have chosen to draft a plan stretching right through to the year 2034. In addition they have chosen to adjust those figures. Adjust them by increasing them hence artificially increasing the projection. Official figures show the population of Bury has grown by 4.58%. There was an estimated population of 179656 in 1997 and in 2015 this had increased by 8228.
I look forward to reading the White Paper and it will be interesting to see to what extent it assists the case we have been constructing.
David Nuttall 