FOREIGN workers may be recruited from overseas to help build the 1.5 million homes planned under a Labour government.
Sir Keir Starmer last night said there needs to be “flexibility” in opening the doors to migrants to fill the skills shortages in Britain.
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The intervention came as the Labour leader described himself as a YIMBY – Yes In My Back Yard – as housing hots up to be a key election battleground.
But when asked if he was open to more visas being handed out to help construction, he told the BBC: “Well, that isn’t the priority. But of course that needs to be flexibility.”
Starmer hopes in the first instance to use the skills in the UK using specialist colleges to ensure there are enough home-grown talent.
He described how many business chiefs tell him that they are “more or less forced” to recruit from abroad as they haven’t got the skills here.
He added: “But I think that’s wrong.”
He will take on the NIMBY – Not in My Back Yard – activists who stand in the way of thousands of new homes being built.
When asked if he was in fact a YIMBY, he said: “I am yes. I think that it’s very important that we build the homes that we need for the future.
He said it was “hugely, hugely important for the aspiration of young people desperately want to get on the housing ladder, massive failure for the last 13 years”.
His comments came after he put housing as a key plank of his conference speech in Liverpool in a bid to woo young voters desperate to land their own home.
The party chief said he was prepared to override local opposition to deliver his plans saying he would “bulldoze away” ready to take on and MPs and councils to get building.
Starmer has said he will build 1.5 million homes over the first five years of Labour being in power.
He said: “We are going to have to be tough with anybody who stands in the way of that and that will include any Labour MPs who say: ‘Well, I’m signed up to the project but just not here.”’
The plan will also include building ten new towns which means riding roughshod over objections to major developments.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove hit out pointing to Labour blocking the building of 100,000 homes after the party voted against plans to axe water pollution rules to encourage house-building.
He said: “Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship policy has been revealed to be short-term positioning to grab headlines, not a serious long-term plan.
“Just like every decision he makes, Sir Keir always takes the easy way out.
“Only last month Labour voted against 100,000 new homes to win cheap headlines and please special interests. He’s a blocker not a builder.”
