A NEW call by Councillor Anne Hawkesworth for Bradford Council to think again about the number of new houses it needs to build is welcome and should be taken seriously.

Bradford says it needs to build 42,100 more homes by 2030 but, as I have explained in this column before, those figures are now out-of-date because they are based on calculations made before the Brexit vote.

The chief driver of Brexit was clearly a national desire to substantially reduce immigration levels and the Government is committed to making that happen.

Population growth among the existing residents was clearly not the only reason for the over-ambitious figure and Leeds has realised this and slashed its housing projections by more than 20 per cent.

Bradford also needs to think again before it commits us to unnecessary incursions into our valuable green spaces.

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