LABOUR councillors say Bath’s UNESCO World Heritage Site status should not be a barrier to building homes.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has been told by the Labour government to build 27,324 homes over the next 18 years.

Last week, the council published a draft of its local plan, which sets out where they should go.

Yes, despite the City of Bath accounting for around half of the district’s population, it is only set to get around a quarter of the new homes.

The Liberal Democrat-run council is proposing building most of the homes around Keynsham and the Somer Valley, as it says that building suburbs around the city of Bath would threaten its World Heritage Site status.

Leader of the council’s opposition Labour group Robin Moss (Westfield) said: “We’ve repeatedly asked why the Lib Dem administration thinks World Heritage status stops them from building homes, but got no reasonable answer.

“UNESCO is proud of other World Heritage Site cities where the locals aren’t priced out.”

Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site twice over and the listing does not just cover Bath’s iconic sites like the Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge, but also key aspects about the character of the city as a whole including its setting a “hollow in the hills.”

This has effectively halted any further suburban expansion of the city, with new houses to be focussed on brownfield sites within its boundary and few very small parcels of land at the edges.

The plan allocates space for 5,900 homes in Bath, 4,600 in the Somer Valley around Midsomer Norton and Radstock, and 2,600 in the district’s rural areas.

Meanwhile 8,600 would be built in what it refers to as “the Bristol and Bath corridor,” around Keynsham, Saltford, Whitchurch village on the edge of Bristol, and a new town at Hicks Gate.

Allocating a site for development in the local plan does not mean there are current plans to build there, but any planning applications in line for developments proposed in the plan will almost certainly be approved.

The council considered allocating a large area of land from the edge of Twerton as space for 2,000 new homes, but decided against including it in the draft plan.

Labour councillors, who all represent wards outside the city in the former mining areas around the Somer Valley, previously suggested that Bath should drop its UNESCO status in order to build more houses.

But losing the coveted status, as happened to Liverpool in 2021 after redevelopment of its Victorian docks, would likely be seen as a humiliation and failure to preserve heritage by many.

Mr Moss said: “Already too many people who work in Bath can only afford to live outside it where the homes cost less. This just moves the problem, adding to commuter crush and environmental damage every morning and evening, because these local workers and families have no other choice.”

A six-week consultation on the draft local plan is due to start the week commencing September 14.