Councils in England could be forced to build on low-quality green belt sites to meet mandatory housebuilding targets as part of a government shake-up of planning rules.
Under the new regime all local authorities will have a duty to deliver more homes, and unless they produce a clear plan for how this will happen ministers could step in and take over the process.
Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister and housing secretary, on Tuesday announced the draft new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for England to the Commons. It is billed as the first step in a series of reforms to deliver Labour’s promise of 1.5m new homes this parliament.
Rayner told MPs that the collective total for the new mandatory housing targets would rise from 300,000 a year to 370,000, with all areas obliged to build.
“Some will find this uncomfortable, and others will try and poke holes,” she said. “To this I say: we have a housing crisis and a mandate for real change, and we all must play our part.”
With officials saying the current projection is below 200,000 homes a year, with little more than 100,000 of these being affordable, future plans could make the right to buy scheme for social tenants less appealing, and give councils the ability to invest proceeds from such sales in new homes.
Rayner said the government plans would involve “the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation”.
Other changes are expected to include a doubling of the cost for householders to submit a planning application, so councils can cover the costs of the process, and changes to streamline the work of local authority planning committees, so they mainly consider bigger projects, with officials taking responsibility for minor ones.
What is likely to be among the more contentious elements of the planning shake-up is the provision for councils to review local green belt land and identify so-called grey belt sites, within the green belt but deemed as not contributing to its utility.
Where councils fail to properly do this, housebuilding companies can present their own proposals for development on what they believe is a grey belt area.
The full definition of grey belt will be included in the new NPPF, which will be out for consultation until September but it will include sites on the edges of existing towns and villages, next to roads, and former petrol stations or car parks.
Such projects in the green belt will be subject to particular rules, including that at least 50% of the homes must be affordable, and that developments come with infrastructure and a net increase in access to green spaces.
Officials in Rayner’s department say there are simply not enough brownfield sites – those not in the green belt that have been previously built on – to meet the demand for new homes.
All councils will need to have a new local plan, created under the revised framework, in place by next year. Currently, two-thirds of them have plans that are at least five years old.
Much of the shake-up is intended to get rid of what the new government believes were blocks on development in the current NPPF, which made local targets effectively advisory, and easy to avoid for councils on a range of grounds.
One change will get rid of the stipulation for new developments to be “beautiful”, which officials said was too subjective and did not guarantee good design.
On a national level, the new planning framework will move from being based on population projections to a wider metric connected to housing stock, meaning all areas will be obliged to build new homes, with more targeted at areas with the greatest need.
Responding for the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, criticised the removal of the “beautiful” stipulation, and questioned why building targets in London were being reduced.
“The government is in danger of choosing the worst of all worlds,” she said. “It’s not addressing the basic economics of housebuilding, it’s centralising decision-making, and when you look at all that it looks like 1.5m will be a distant aspiration rather than a meaningful target.”
Another element to this national plan will be reforms intended to improve the construction of infrastructure connected to new housing, and to bringing in projects such as solar and windfarms, which would bring an economic boost.
Later changes, some of which will come in a planning and infrastructure bill, could give councils the powers to set their own planning fees to cover costs, and a wider review of the right to buy scheme, which could limit eligibility and stop new social homes being sold off.
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