THREE MPs serving Wharfedale and Aireborough heard claims that major housing developers having a ‘stranglehold’ on the housing market – and the loss of the national ‘brownfield first’ policy – at a planning conference held in Ilkley.

Shipley MP Philip Davies, Pudsey MP Stuart Andrew, and Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland joined a question time panel at the event organised by WARD (Wharfedale and Airedale Review Development) on Saturday .

Residents, councillors and members of community organisations heard of the MPs’ efforts to raise planning issues in Parliament, and urged them to take further action.

Also speaking at the Clarke Foley Centre were Horsforth Town Council chairman, Martin Hughes, Jackie Thompson of WASP (Wharfedale Alliance for Sound Plans), Ilkley ward councillor Anne Hawkesworth and industry expert, director of Business Development Easybase Home Ltd, Paul Renton.

The conference comes just after the close of the Core Strategy Examination hearing in Saltaire, which has seen a government planning inspector look in detail into the central policy of Bradford Council’s proposed Local Plan.

The hearing saw Bradford Council increase its housing distribution figures for Menston, Burley and Ilkley and by hundreds of additional homes, after a legal challenge from representatives of a consortium of housing developers.

Proposed housing figures were again challenged by Jackie Thompson, who has scrutinised housing need figures calculated on behalf on Bradford Council, as well as Leeds City Council, by a consultant.

She also challenged these figures at the hearing, pointing out that unexplained population growth was already a factor calculated in government figures, and did not need to added to national figures used.

Mr Renton told the meeting how brownfield development is not considered viable by larger developers, and incentives or other measures would be needed to encourage the development of these sites ahead of profitable greenfield land.

He also highlighted what he claims is a “stranglehold” on housebuilding nationally by a limited number of major developers – including land banking, and control of supply of materials.

And he promoted the use of modular build houses to create extra housing needed in some areas at a fraction of the cost, with a much-reduced time needed to assemble the properties.

The MPs were quizzed about the extent of the national housing crisis identified by politicians.