Rayner sets new housing targets in planning review

Angela Rayner has unveiled a review of England’s planning rules to deliver on Labour’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029.

The Housing Secretary said local housing targets, which were watered down by the Conservatives in 2022, would become mandatory again.

She also unveiled plans to make it easier to build on low-quality green belt land, which will be reclassified as ‘grey belt’.

Ms Rayner admitted her plans “will not be without controversy” but that changes are needed to make housing more affordable.

However, the Conservatives criticised the plans, arguing that they would result in suburbs taking more housing from Labour urban areas.

Under the plans, English councils will have to reintroduce government-set housing targets into their long-term land allocation plans.

Municipalities that did not do this previously ran the risk of having their power to block new developments curtailed.

But Rishi Sunak’s government has downgraded the status of these MPs, saying they would only serve in an advisory capacity, in a bid to head off a revolt by Conservative MPs in late 2022.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mrs Rayner cited this as an example of the Conservatives “pandering to anti-growth backbenchers” and “putting party before country”.

She added that the number of new housing starts this year is likely to fall below 200,000, well below the overall target of 300,000 set by the previous government.

Goals recalculated

Labour also plans to change the way the targets are calculated, dropping the Tories’ proposed 35% ‘uplift’ for the largest urban areas and changing the way the formula takes into account housing affordability.

Official documents show the changes will mean municipalities will have to build around 370,000 homes each year, up from the current 305,000.

But some areas previously covered by the increase will see their targets reduced, with the number of homes in London falling from just under 99,000 to around 80,000.

The Housing Minister said the figure for the capital would still be a “huge challenge” and said the previous target was “absolute nonsense”.

However, the changes were criticised by Kemi Badenoch, shadow housing minister and Conservative leadership candidate, who said they would create more uncertainty.

She also argued it could lead to suburbs and rural areas having to take homes from Labour-controlled inner cities.

‘Grey belt’

Elsewhere, the government has given more details of its plan to make it easier to build on certain parts of the Green Belt, a protected area around larger cities.

Under the plan, councils would have to reclassify as ‘grey belt’ areas that have been previously developed, or that make only a ‘limited contribution’ to goals such as protecting the countryside and the special character of historic towns.

Officials said they could not say how much of the green belt, which covers 12% of England’s territory, would be reclassified, with the final figure depending on choices made by local authorities.

New ‘golden rules’ apply to the development of homes in the grey zone, including rules for the percentage of new homes that are considered affordable.

The Labour Party also plans to remove the requirement that new homes be attractive, arguing that it is too vague and is interpreted differently in different areas.

The Greens called the planning review a “distraction from Labour’s failure to fund real solutions to the housing crisis, including large-scale investment in genuinely affordable, sustainable social housing.”