UK Housing Minister visits to Rochester Riverside development in Medway

New Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP sees housing delivery in action on a visit to Rochester Riverside development in Medway, as part of his role in building a housing market fit for the future.

New Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP sees housing delivery in action on a visit to Rochester Riverside development in Medway today (26 July 2018) as part of his role in building a housing market fit for the future.

Hot off the heels of major planning reforms announced earlier this week by the government, the minister joined council leader Alan Jarrett to tour the Medway-based development, meet apprentices and see how the site is helping to support the needs of the community.

Working closely with joint landowners, Medway Council and Homes England, Countryside has already started 400 of the 1,400 homes since work began in 2018.

Minister of State for Housing, Kit Malthouse MP said, "There are few missions more important than building more homes in the places that desperately need them. 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 rulebook which will help to deliver the 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s."

Touring the first phase of the construction site, the minister saw for himself the design and materials used as the homes were being prepared for new residents to move in.

He also met apprentice bricklayers working on the site, building the homes while also learning valuable skills to set them up for the future.

The minister's visit follows the launch of the new National Planning Policy Framework on 24 July 2018, setting out new requirements for delivering high-quality new homes, giving the community a real say in development proposals and also introducing tougher environmental protections that safeguard wildlife and air quality.

The government has been clear on its ambition to achieve 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s, which follows 217,000 homes built last year, the biggest increase in housing supply in England for almost a decade.