Government to ride ‘roughshod’ over local planning rules
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner says she will bypass local authorities to remove ‘chaos and subjectiveness’ from the system.
Labour’s Angela Rayner told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that local authority planning officers will be given the power to rubberstamp development proposals without permission from council committees in order to unlock the planning system.
It comes after the Government’s ambitious plans to build 1.5million new homes have been questioned by many commentators, given that it would require record levels of housebuilding in the UK.
According to the BBC, developers have mostly welcomed the announcement, although the Conservatives have accused Labour of ignoring the wishes of local communities.
It’s going to take a lot of change to deliver.”
Rayner told Kuenssberg: “Because we haven’t had these compulsory plans locally, we’ve seen speculative development where greenbelt land has been developed on… we’ve told councils they’ve got to have those plans.
“If developers follow the national framework, which protects the environment and looks at other elements, then they shouldn’t be stuck in the system for years.”
She denied that she was going to run ‘roughshod’ over locals but said: “It’s going to take a lot of change to deliver.”
People ignored
Tory shadow Treasury minister Richard Fuller agreed that the government’s building target was “reasonable,” but added, “If you want to achieve that, you’ve got to bring the people with you, and, unfortunately, Labour seem to be saying that Angela is best and local people can be ignored.”
Propertymark’s chief Nathan Emerson tells The Neg that Rayner’s comments needed to be: “Treated with caution. Planning frameworks are there for a reason and not necessarily all of it bad.”
“We do appreciate the requirement to build more homes but not at any cost. Some areas will still need protecting.”
Sam Bensted, Assistant Director Policy (Planning & Development) at the British Property Federation, says: “It is very welcome that government are focused on improving the efficiency of decision-making in the planning system while maintaining democratic accountability.
“The proposals in MHCLG’s discussion paper on modernising planning committees do just that by enabling local planners to take more important planning decisions when the application is consistent with the local plan.
Applications
“This will not only speed up the determination process and empower planning officers to use their professional judgement, it will also free up elected members to focus on the most significant planning applications.
“It is also encouraging to see a commitment to extra training for planning committee members, which we hope will lead to a higher quality of debate and decision-making on applications which are brought to committee.
“It will be important that councillor training is well-rounded, encompassing all forms of housing and commercial uses, and not just training on planning, but also the wider economics of development.“
Migration has been re-stated at 901,000. 99,000 short of a million.
Either way we need a lot more houses and flats.
If you can build them Angela will fill them.
What exactly is she hoping to get planning permission for? There are currently thousands of u sold new homes on the market getting very little interest from buyers. The govt has switched off the buy to let market which means decreased supply of rental properties resulting in higher rental rates. We are desperately short of cheap rental housing and low value properties to buy. Yes developers keep building high value (£psf) properties that offer bad value for money and are far too expensive. As the government has no mo et and can’t build ‘council house’ for want of a better expression, how is bulldozing planners into granting permission for estates of 3-4 bedroom detached houses going to help. If they would just indemnify first time buyers mortgages above 90% and lenders would lend 100% mortgages then we could get many more people out of rental into home ownership at the bottom rung of the ladder and free up more of the rental stock to reduce rents. Cost to government -£0 apart from anyone repossessed in negative equity so be strict on lending criteria.
Oops. Spelling mistakes aplenty-
Unsold
Yet
Money
Angela Raynor says – ‘She will override local authorities to remove chaos and subjectiveness’ .
She will do this by using her subjectiveness as to what she considers to be right. Which will lead to chaos…..
Anyone in Government thought about the demand side of the housing equation as well as the supply side? As long as you have close to a million NET new UK residence a year you are never going to be able to build enough houses….. Or schools, or hospitals, or roads, or have enough doctors, or teachers………….etc
Just a thought.
Net migration is nowhere near 1m. Year to July 2024 was £728k which was unusually high.
Are you seriously suggesting well over 700,000 net migration is not close to a million?
Year before that – Net over 600,000.
The Labour government have committed (Openly admitted) they intend to bring in a further 2.5 million in the next 5 years – a rate of 500,000 a year. If that’s what they are admitting to then you can be sure it will be more. Therefore their house building plan – even if they were to achieve it – wouldn’t cover the new arrivals let alone the deal with the current crises.
And we haven’t mentioned the extra schools, hospitals, doctors, teachers, road’s that will be needed. Its insane! Completely untenable.
Dealing with the supply side is only half the equation. We need to also be dealing with the demand side. But no-one seems to be talking about that.