"we cant have a situation where a newts more protected than people who desperately need housing" Rayner pretending the housing crisis is because of regulations rather than profiteering developers & the solution therefore is to rip up regulations rather than tackle the developers

16% of U.K. species are now endangered and at threat of extinction. Including the hedgehog. We share this planet. If we don’t protect wildlife we endangered all of us. Rayner is an utter disgrace and a sellout.

Good grief. This Labour Party playing to all the far right rhetoric. Are they aware of how depleted our nature is.

They've already created the Freeports/SEZs where laws can be relaxed including planning, environmental, employment & tax rules. Exemptions from tax, business rates, planning, NICs while £billions of grants up for grabs

Bloody newts. Coming over here. Stealing our land... NuNu Labour just aren't even bothering to try & conceal their utter vileness anymore, are they?

How about, doing up all the empty houses we have in the U.K. first? Why are local people being pushed out of their communities. Because someone who is very wealthy, has a 2nd home. Which they only live in for a couple of weeks a year? Why is rent, more expensive than a mortgage?

These are ridiculous arguments by Rayner. I thought we were past this nonsense. If it came to it my vote is with the newts everytime

Developers already have too much control pushing for unaffordable housing on unsuitable land with no access to public transport and often asking for local councils to stump up more cash subsidies and to relax conditions before any building is even complete

She should get COUNCIL HOMES BUILT THEY PAY FOR THEMSELVES AND NOT PRIVATE PROFITING ON THE GRAND SCALE

Starmer/McSweeney have said its all about getting rid of regulation - no minister is allowed to say or even speculate that there might be other factors - such as half a million planning permissions not implemented as developers drip feed.

They're bored with culling the elderly and disabled - today its mostly going to be - newts

@spicymutant On our small town, a huge development has been built on fields that flood every winter - so guess what happens every time we have heavy rain?

Newts and bats have evolved for millions of years but @AngelaRayner and @UKLabour want to destroy them. It's simply not acceptable.

Fully revealed as the utter idiot she has always been.

I assume she means that a gang of ultra-wealthy newts bought up property to hoard/rent. That's the only way that makes sense.

People who 'desperately need housing' cannot afford it! Unless all these 'new houses' push prices right down - which developers will make sure they do not - then number of houses is irrelevant.

Rayner repeating lines from rightwing junk tanks...

Will someone point out to @AngelaRayner that, whereas people can live almost anywhere, newts can't (habitat, food sources, predators)? Also, can we start electing politicians who are not thick.

Rethink this one Angela , for housing to be sustainable we need to respect biodiversity and design around that. Uk is one of the least biodiverse countries!!! This is serious!!!

Ridiculous woman

invest in the assets of well built, green energy council housing on brownfield sites near towns where jobs, schools, shops, medical facilities & public transport already exist. Use smaller local firms, not the usual Big Boys who want to build 'executive homes in the country'.

Yet the wildlife is disappearing, it really is worrying, even the rabbits are in serious decline round here the fields used to be peppered with them I hardly see any nowadays

Great Crested Newts have rights too! It's the only defence against lego land taking over the green belt. I sound like a outraged Tory.

They love the money the housebuilders and developers throw their way. I used to be somewhat sympathetic towards Rayner. Now, however, I see her as an arrogant philistine social climber.

Enough dwellings already. Too many absent Investors using them as empty/touristlet gambling chips. Number of houses per person keeps rising and so does number of homeless. Overconstruction is Killing Planet let alone newts. Tax use of what should be homes as investments OUT.

Immigrant newts even?🙄

If they're going to build houses where newts live then might I suggest they're built on stilts. Aren't there already too many houses built on floodplains and former marshland? When they flood, as they will do, will it be blamed on climate change?

@hullfair Wow, Rayner getting it wrong in a really libertarian way

So build anywhere anytime, just build Wankers

This is going to be a miserable four years as if we haven't suffered enough under the old Tories

This government is too frightened to acknowledge that profiteering exists, because the ones doing it are their paymasters. It will become the ever-expanding elephant in the room until we all end up paying for yet another crash

right to buy and councils not being able to build is the main problem

She sounded ridiculous this morning.

Well, hopefully we can fast track affordable housing held up by newts rather than the usual executive homes built on green belt

@UKLabour is a neoliberal endeavor 🤷‍♀️

Hello, first time buyers - maybe don’t even consider buying a #home on a #floodplain, even if #Rayner and her mates have been busy ripping up regulations, and assuring you that you have more rights than #newts?