As Green Party councillors on Bath & North East Somerset Council, we are fully committed to tackling the housing crisis and delivering the right homes in the right places. However, after careful consideration, we have decided not to sign the proposed Cross-Party Housing Accord.
While we support the idea of collaboration to address one of the most pressing challenges facing our communities, we do not believe this Accord provides a meaningful or effective way forward. The Accord, as it currently stands, appears to be a vague statement of intent rather than a framework for real action. It lacks detail on how it will deliver change, what resources are being committed, or how it will influence local planning decisions.
Crucially, it remains unclear what the actual purpose of the Accord is. If it is not binding, and councillors remain free to act independently of it, we question how it can deliver the unity or consistency it claims to promote.
As Green councillors, we already play a constructive role in shaping the future of housing in our area. Cllrs Sam Ross and Joanna Wright sit on the Spatial Planning Action Group (previously the Local Development Framework Steering Group), where they are actively feeding into the development of the new Local Plan. This is the process through which real decisions about the location, type and sustainability of new housing will be made.
In November 2024, the Bath and North East Somerset Green Group brought a motion to Full Council titled “Tackling the Housing Crisis in Bath and North East Somerset.” The motion was rejected, with 40 councillors voting against, 4 in favour, and 4 abstaining.
We remain committed to building genuinely affordable, energy-efficient homes in the right places, supported by public transport, green spaces, and local services. The Green Party pledges to provide new social homes ending the individual ‘right to buy’, and to keep social homes for local communities in perpetuity. We will continue to push for rent controls so that local authorities can control rents when the rental market is unaffordable for many local people. We will continue to champion this vision and work with others where it leads to meaningful progress, but we will not sign up to statements that lack substance or risk being used to obscure the complexity of the challenges ahead.