Housing developments within a 15-minute walk of train and tram stations will be given the green light by default from planners, under plans unveiled by housing secretary Steve Reed.
Ministers will be granted stronger powers to intervene if local councils look to turn down large housing developments of over 150 homes, suggesting the government is looking to tackle NIMBYism.
Councils in England will have to tell the government when they want to turn down housing developments over a certain size, with the housing secretary having the final say.
Reed said: “We’re making it easier to build well-connected and high-quality homes, using stronger powers to speed things up if councils drag their feet, and proposing to streamline the consultation process to cut back delays.
“This is about action: spades in the ground, breathing new life into communities, and families finally getting the homes they need.”
The rules will extend to land within the Green Belt.
The government indicated that it wouldn’t look kindly on planning committees turning down applications against the advice of planning officers.
It’s claimed the reforms will drive down the number of applications considered by some statutory consultees by as much as 40%
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is quoted as saying the package will unleash “the biggest era of housebuilding in this country’s history”.
Reaction
Rico Wojtulewicz, head of policy and market insight at the NFB, said: “Building around transport, encouraging density, tackling planning politics, and supporting planners – many of us in the industry are left speechless at the ambition and conviction.
“This is a considerable opportunity to enable organic placemaking and stimulate housing supply, particularly in relation to density. We will be knocking on Mr Reed’s door waving our ‘Community Density’ report, which identifies how good design can make tall, dense buildings that are both acceptable to local people and seen as the default for great placemaking and more housing.”
Richard Beresford, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “Building around existing transport infrastructure is the organic placemaking the nation has been crying out for. It will provide planning certainty – helping projects become viable and speeding up delivery of homes.”
Fergus Charlton, planning partner with national law firm Michelmores, said: “Expanding the Minister’s ability to call-in applications (in this case ‘minded to refuse’ applications for more than 150 units) is likely to undermine local democracy and decision making, and will not necessarily speed up the planning process when Ministerial delays will be a compounding factor in the applicant’s appeal strategy.
“Mr Reed’s aspiration of streamlining the planning process and cutting back delays would have been better served by placing the soon to emerge national development management policies on a statutory basis, giving them real effectiveness.”
Will Thomas, partner in planning at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “Developers will welcome any move to unlock housebuilding, but any intervention from central government must ensure it doesn’t merely move decision-making bottlenecks between public authorities or risk undermining an already fragile public confidence in development.
“Bypassing local authorities to call in applications for more than 150 homes to the Secretary of State will still require the involvement of the Planning Inspectorate, which may face a significant influx of applications it hasn’t dealt with until now.
“Moving this administrative layer from local to central government therefore raises questions about whether sufficient capacity exists within the civil service – and whether a better solution would be to resource local authority planning departments more effectively.
“It’s important that decisions aren’t rushed and all the necessary considerations are still considered to ensure that development is well planned. Forcing through large-scale housing projects too rapidly could increase tensions between communities and government, so the government’s housebuilding ambitions must be matched by a drive to upgrade critical infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and transport systems.”