Angela Rayner has warned that councils will be stripped of planning powers if they fail to meet housing targets.
Under new plans announced by the Housing Secretary mandatory housing targets will increase from 300,000 to 370,000.
Angela Rayner’s planning “revolution” will see London’s housebuilding target slashed by 20,000 homes, despite a wider push to boost the number of houses being built each year.
The deputy prime minister and housing secretary unveiled a major overhaul of the planning system last week, which will see all councils in England given new, mandatory housing targets as part of a plan to deliver 1.5 million more homes in the UK.
Ms Rayner says councils that fail to meet targets will be compelled to build on low-value “grey belt” land, like disused car parks, situated in the green belt.
Council house revolution
Ms Rayner told the House of Commons that "two-thirds of local councils in England don’t have an up-to-date plan for building the new homes needed in their areas. From now on, all councils will have to draw up a plan showing where they’ll put the houses to meet their yearly targets.
The housing secretary also announced that there will be “golden rules” for development on the green belt, requiring that half of new homes be affordable.
Ms Rayner also vowed to work with local authorities to deliver a “council house revolution”.
However, the housing secretary warned that councils failing to comply will be stripped of their planning powers, and Whitehall will impose a housing plan on them.
Make local housing targets mandatory
Ms Rayner told MPs that she "understands the plans will be controversial but accused the Conservative government of “ducking difficult decisions on housebuilding” and says the number of new homes built is below 200,000. Whilst the previous government watered down housing targets, caving into their anti-growth backbenchers, this Labour government is taking the tough choices putting people and country first. For the first time, we will make local housing targets mandatory, requiring local authorities to use the same method to work out how many homes to build. But that alone is insufficient to meet our ambition, so we’re also changing the standard method used to calculate housing need so it better reflects the urgency of supply for local areas.
Rather than relying on outdated data, this new method will require local authorities to plan for homes proportionate to the size of existing communities, and it will incorporate an uplift where house prices are most out of step with local incomes. The collective total of these local targets will therefore rise from some 300,000 a year to just over 370,000 a year.”
Reaction to announcement
In response to Angela Rayner’s announcement, Shadow Housing Secretary Kemi Badenoch said "rural councils are worried they’ll be forced to take on housing projects that urban areas haven’t managed. Councillors have repeatedly told me that they are afraid that they will be forced under a duty to cooperate to sacrifice their own green spaces to take the housing need that the urban leaders who are her friends fail to meet.”
Ms Badenoch also questioned what penalties would be enforced on urban council leaders who do not meet their housing targets.
Increasing housing targets will be controversial
Fergus Charlton, a partner in law firm Michelmores’ planning practice, says "increasing the housing targets could be problematic. Increasing the housing targets combined with pressure to produce new local plans should result in more housing allocated sites. Allocated sites ought to have an easier ride through the planning system, meaning increased certainty. But if local plans are not updated there will be a disconnect between the allocation housing numbers in the out-of-date local plans and the new mandated targets. That will encourage developers to appeal planning refusals. Identifying sites for allocation will put pressure on recipient local communities and the green belt, so increasing the housing targets will be controversial.”
Increased housebuilding
Philip Allin, director, at Boyer (part of Leaders Romans Group) says "it remains to be seen whether Labour’s housebuilding plans will become a reality. At the dispatch box, Angela Rayner set out the ambitious programme for delivering the government’s ‘decade of renewal’. Much of the detail will follow, initially in planned changes to the NPPF culminating in the publication of a long-term housing strategy in the coming months. Whilst the anticipated changes are no secret the nature and language both seek to underline the significant shift underway and more muscular nature of the government’s new approach.
Many of the aims are familiar (e.g. requirement for universal Local Plan coverage). However, the tools with which this is to be achieved differ markedly from those of the previous government. How already stretched planning authorities will deliver these objectives will remain to be seen. However, these announcements are most welcome and will hopefully result in the new infrastructure and increased housebuilding that the country desperately needs.”
Positive to see that local authorities will be obliged to deliver.
Colin Brown, head of planning and development, at Carter Jonas said “we support the return of mandatory housing targets and the emphasis on delivery in areas where affordability issues are at their most acute. It is positive to see that local authorities will be obliged to deliver the housing that is needed in their areas, and while we support the fact that they can decide how to do this, we are pleased to see they will not have the ability to duck the issue simply because they choose to.”
Planners will need to ‘release elements’ of green belt to meet housing targets
Local authorities may need to “release some elements” of green belt land to meet housing targets, housing minister Matthew Pennycook has said.
Mr Pennycook also revealed that local plans are expected to be in place next year, or the Government will put in place plans to “ensure targets are met” in its bid to meet Labour’s manifesto commitment of 1.5 million new homes over this Parliament.
On Wednesday, the Government announced that an expert taskforce has been launched to spearhead plans for a fresh generation of new towns.
The towns, which the new Government says will create communities of at least 10,000 homes each, are billed as a part of the largest housebuilding programme since the post-war period.
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has asked two experts – Sir Michael Lyons and Dame Kate Barker – to lead the independent New Towns Taskforce.
Mr Pennycook said "new housing will be prioritised on brownfield or greyfield sites but that some green belt may need to be 'released'. If local authorities can’t meet their targets through previously developed brownfield land in the first instance or in co-operation with neighbouring boroughs, they should look to then release low quality grey belt land within the green belt. Lots of the package yesterday was focused on the targeted release of that grey belt land. But, in certain circumstances, certain local authorities may, if they can’t through brownfield or in co-operation with neighbours or through grey belt release, need to release some elements of the green belt – that happens already. Just to be really clear, we’ve not inherited a situation where the previous government didn’t release any green belt land at all.
They were releasing it in quantity but in a haphazard, unplanned way, and often in a way that didn’t meet local housing needs. So, what we’re saying is there’s a smarter way to release the right bits of the green belt – grey belt low-quality land primarily – and to ensure through our golden rules that, when it is released, we get development that meets local housing needs.”
On Tuesday, Ms Rayner announced an overhaul of the planning system to pave the way for 1.5 million new homes over the next five years to tackle England’s acute housing crisis.
Mandatory housing targets, scrapped by the previous Conservative government, will be restored, among other measures.
The New Towns Taskforce is expected to work closely with local leaders, including regional mayors, all of whom, apart from Conservative Lord Ben Houchen in the Tees Valley, are currently Labour politicians.
But Mr Pennycook has said "the Government will put housing plans in place in local areas only as a 'final and most extreme' intervention to ensure targets are met."
The housing minister told Times Radio: “We are prepared to take local plans off local authorities and ensure they are put in place.
“That would be the final and most extreme type of intervention that we would contemplate.
“What we’d rather do is encourage and support local councils to get those plans in place.
“Local plans are the best way that local communities can engage with the planning process, can shape development in their area, in the way that they want to see it take place.”
He added: “We want to see local plans in place by next year, there’ll be a process to drive up coverage across the country.
“But this is right that this is the focus, in the sense we have a local plan-led planning system, and what we’ve inherited from the previous government is only a third up to date local plan coverage.
“So we’ve got a system that is chronically underperforming, that is not functioning as it should. As I say, if we boost local plan coverage in the way we want, cities will be able to shape the development in the way that they see fit.
“But the conversation has to be how it’s done, not whether housing targets and housing need is met.”
Ms Rayner has insisted the taskforce will “work together with local people to help us decide on the right places for these new towns, delivering more homes, jobs and green spaces”.
The communities will be governed by a New Towns Code, a set of rules for developers to ensure the towns are well-connected with infrastructure and public services, are well-designed, sustainable and are nice-looking places