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”.

He told Sky News: “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.