houses actually who are these houses actually for? who are these houses actually for.7 the ministry of justice face a massive, terrible backlog in our whole judicial system. another one of the great benefits of locking us down three times. they're now looking at scrapping jury trials. does that make sense, or would it weaken things that we valued, liberties that we really thought to be integral to our way of life for centuries? and kemi badenoch says that lunch breaks are for wimps. i will give you a full, definitive farage answer to what i think about that. first, let's get the news with will hollis. >> thank you nigel. some breaking news for you at the top of nigel's show. the government will not change the terrorist status of the rebel group which toppled the syrian regime. defence secretary john healey says the government is laser focused on stopping a resurgence of terror groups like isis in

the middle east, but won't remove hsi from the rebels who removed assad from power from the proscribed terror list description is not a matter for how. >> now. >> it doesn't stop us talking to all the parties , and our all the parties, and our interest in hrds is that they live up to their promises to protect the rights of all individuals and all groups, to respect international law, and to prevent syria becoming a base for fresh terrorist threats. >> a body has been found in the search for missing former england rugby player tom voice. it's feared the 43 year old was swept away while trying to cross a flooded river on saturday night during storm darrah. it's believed mr voice had entered the river arconic after attempting to cross a ford in his car. northumbria police's marine unit discovered a body earlier today. chief superintendent helena barron

said the development was extremely sad. the government is today demanding immediate mandatory housing targets from councils as part of its plan to build 1.5 million houses by the next general election. sir keir starmer is vowing to override blockers and put builders first as he prepares to unveil sweeping changes to the planning process. the new plans could mean increased developments on the green belt, though the government has pledged to prioritise brownfield sites. a man who tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years. that's the longest joint, longest prison sentence in connection with the uk's summer of riots. levi fishlock smashed windows and stoked a flaming bin at the holiday inn express in rotherham during a spate of

disorder on the 4th of august. the 31 year old initially denied violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life, but later pleaded guilty to the charges. fishlock sentence includes a five year licence penod includes a five year licence period after he's released from jail. and your final story for now. drivers planning christmas getaways are being warned to expect long queues because of record traffic levels. the aa predicted that friday, december the 20th, will be the busiest day on the roads during the festive period, with an estimated 23.7 million drivers planning a trip. that's more than the busiest christmas getaway day of any year since the aa began recording data in 2010. the joint second worst day of traffic jams over the 2024 festive period are expected to be december the 21st and

december the 23rd, each with more than 22 million drivers on the road. the amber traffic warnings have been issued by the aa for all three days. those are your latest stories for now. it is back to nigel for the very latest. >> gb news direct to your smartphone. sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code or go to gbnews.com/alerts. >> good evening. well, in common with the last government, there is a target to build 1.5 million homes during the lifetime of this parliament. it's just that labour seem to be rather more determined to do it, because they are quite prepared to totally override local district county councils, local unitary authorities. they are just going to do it. and this includes redefinitions of what counts as green belt land. some of it

potentially being designated as being grey belt. now, if this comes to disused garages or empty car parks or vacant pubs, well, you might say that all makes sense. but there will be, especially across the home counties, real, genuine worry about what it means for green spaces, about what it means for gapsin spaces, about what it means for gaps in between villages. and by the way, when all these houses get built, there will be no more gp's, no more school places, no more roads, no your quality of life, your quality of life will diminish directly as a result of this. now, whether they can actually meet the target, i very much doubt without importing huge amounts of foreign labour, which of course in turn will mean even more demand for houses. right now we have to provide one new home every two minutes just to keep pace with levels of immigration in this country. so the truth of it is, we must build every green belt

land all over our nation just to house those that have come into this country in the course of the last ten years. however, we have a serious housing shortage. what are we to do? i'm joined by kane emerson, head of housing research at an outfit called yimby, not nimby. yimby. which i guess kane means you're quite in favour of housebuilding everywhere. >> yeah. yes. in my backyard. yeah. >> so forget the green belt, forget historic england, just build everywhere. >> well, i wouldn't necessarily build absolutely everywhere. you know, the announcements today aren't a kind of a way to concrete over the countryside. we know that the green belt only represents about 10% of the countryside, so why not protect it? yes. well, under the plans today, hopefully we get much more high quality countryside protected. so this labour government has announced plans that they're going to designate some of the green belt into grey belt. so that's areas such as, you know, rubbish dumps or garages, disused land. >> so if it's literally just that, i don't think there'll be

a problem. but will it stay at that. >> well it may involve some green belt development, but at a sustainable and sustainable location. so green belt, particularly in the southeast , particularly in the southeast, councils can no longer use having green belt as a bit of excuse for not developing any new homes. >> all right. i'm also joined in the studio by kwasi kwarteng, former chancellor and matthew torbitt former labour party adviser. just to quickly cut in with you guys before i come back to kane here, kwasi, basically you filled the country up with millions of people. the impact is we just have to build loads of houses. >> so this has been an issue for 25 years, but much worse. >> in the last 14, i'd say. >> in the last 14, i'd say. >> i'd say no, actually, i'd say it's been. well, look at the numbers. well, look, not just the immigration. >> let far more people in than anybody else might have done, but the issue live somewhere. >> the issue is the house building and we haven't been housebuilding. that's the issue. that's the issue. >> so it's not just about how could you when you were projecting for tens of thousands a year net to build, how could

you build houses for millions? >> so that was an issue. but of course, you will remember that when we had lots of immigration from the eu in the in the noughfies from the eu in the in the noughties with under tony blair, and that was an issue as well. and what's happened is whether we like it or not. and i know you've campaigned, you've spent your whole life, professional life, political life campaigning against this, warning people, warning people about it, warning this would happen. but but look so the population when we were growing up 55 million that was the figure that we all learned, you know, growing up. the population now is probably about 70 million. i mean, officially it might be 67, but actually in reality it's 70 million. so you've got a 15 million increase. and people are better because of maths, not just because of maths, not just because of maths, not just because of us. it's happened over the last 25 years. it's you could you could blame the political, the pace of it. >> it's been higher in the last three years than it's ever been in our history, and three times what it was under tony blair. >> the reality is looking forward and it's happened. something that's happened in the last 20 years. we need to build more houses. and it's not just about immigration, it's about

people. yeah. >> because also the five out of every seven new houses will go to immigrants. >> no. but listen, i mean, it's not that's i think a bit too simplistic. if you look at how people live now, if you look at how people live. nigel, back in the day, there