> Councillors will be banned from intervening on “swathes” of planning applications as ministers promise further pro-development reforms to boost growth. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, promised there was “more to come” to speed up building as he argued that there was already clear evidence that Labour’s planning reforms were stimulating the economy.
> An impact assessment of the government’s flagship Planning and Infrastructure Bill, to be published on Tuesday, concludes that it will boost the economy by more £7.5 billion over ten years. Labour’s previous tranche of planning reforms were estimated by the OBR to increase growth by £15 billion over the same period. Sir Keir Starmer has promised to go “further and faster” on improving living standards after Reform UK’s breakthrough at last week’s elections and is relying on liberalising planning rules to grow the economy.
> Pennycook said that Labour’s planning reforms “involve the wholesale transformation of the existing system — we’re not just tinkering around the edges”, as he prepared to announce further elements in the coming weeks. Among the most contentious will be a consultation on stripping council planning committees of the ability to interfere in the vast majority of planning applications. While councils have protested that this risks eroding local democracy, experts said that it could lead to tens of thousands of more homes being built a year, by reducing delays and rejections.
> Pennycook argued that the change could “increase the certainty and speed at which planning decisions are made”. He insisted that “democratic oversight remains important — we want planning committees to be taking decisions on the biggest, most controversial applications — but there are swathes of other applications … where we don’t think there’s a case for every one of those going to planning committee. We’re looking to suggest that they go to expert planning officers.”
> Pennycook said that councillors would no longer get a say on details on housing style and layout once a scheme has received initial permission, arguing that too often they aim to “relitigate” developments that had already got the green light in principle. There is also expected to be a size limit, with applications involving fewer than ten homes likely to automatically bypass councillors, as well as some bigger schemes. “We’re going to be bold in this space,” Pennycook said.
> While some councils already delegate the vast majority of decisions to planning officers, Pennycook said that “some local authorities haven’t made these changes, they haven’t streamlined their process. And I think bringing that clarity and uniformity across the country…will help speed up the process.” Starmer has made a goal of building 1.5 million homes by the next election one of Labour’s signature pledges, but experts are already casting doubt on his chances of hitting the target as the rate of homebuilding slumps. Only 184,390 homes were finished last year, and construction began on just 132,460.
> Pennycook acknowledged that “the trough that we’re in is deeper than we expected” and that the target was “more challenging” than initially thought. However, he insisted that he was “on track”, arguing that his reforms would produce “very, very high rates” of homebuilding in the later years of this parliament. He said: “I think we will see in the coming months a significant increase in planning application numbers start to feed through. “We will see that feed through, as it needs to, into very, very high rates of housing supply in the later years of the parliament.”
> Some estimates suggest that Britain will need to be building more than 400,000 homes a year by the end of the decade to hit Labour’s target. Pennycook said: “You can do the maths as to where we are and where we will need to be to hit that 1.5 [million], but it does absolutely involve some very steep increase over the parliament.” Pennycook and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, are also pressing Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, for billions of pounds at the spending review to kickstart a big programme of council house-building, describing previous funding as a “down payment”.
> Pennycook stressed that he could only meet the 1.5 million target “on the basis of a set menu of changes, not à la carte”. He said: “We have to do everything we committed to doing. That includes a significant boost in social and affordable housebuilding.” However, he has rejected calls from some Labour MPs to water down environmental protections to boost growth, saying: “We don’t think we need to go down that route.” He promised that any repeat of the notorious £100 million HS2 bat tunnel would be avoided by Labour’s plan to make developers pay for nature restoration elsewhere. “We are allowing developers to pay in, get moving on building, but to lead to better outcomes overall through environmental delivery plans.”
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> Councillors will be banned from intervening on “swathes” of planning applications as ministers promise further pro-development reforms to boost growth. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, promised there was “more to come” to speed up building as he argued that there was already clear evidence that Labour’s planning reforms were stimulating the economy.
> An impact assessment of the government’s flagship Planning and Infrastructure Bill, to be published on Tuesday, concludes that it will boost the economy by more £7.5 billion over ten years. Labour’s previous tranche of planning reforms were estimated by the OBR to increase growth by £15 billion over the same period. Sir Keir Starmer has promised to go “further and faster” on improving living standards after Reform UK’s breakthrough at last week’s elections and is relying on liberalising planning rules to grow the economy.
> Pennycook said that Labour’s planning reforms “involve the wholesale transformation of the existing system — we’re not just tinkering around the edges”, as he prepared to announce further elements in the coming weeks. Among the most contentious will be a consultation on stripping council planning committees of the ability to interfere in the vast majority of planning applications. While councils have protested that this risks eroding local democracy, experts said that it could lead to tens of thousands of more homes being built a year, by reducing delays and rejections.
> Pennycook argued that the change could “increase the certainty and speed at which planning decisions are made”. He insisted that “democratic oversight remains important — we want planning committees to be taking decisions on the biggest, most controversial applications — but there are swathes of other applications … where we don’t think there’s a case for every one of those going to planning committee. We’re looking to suggest that they go to expert planning officers.”
> Pennycook said that councillors would no longer get a say on details on housing style and layout once a scheme has received initial permission, arguing that too often they aim to “relitigate” developments that had already got the green light in principle. There is also expected to be a size limit, with applications involving fewer than ten homes likely to automatically bypass councillors, as well as some bigger schemes. “We’re going to be bold in this space,” Pennycook said.
> While some councils already delegate the vast majority of decisions to planning officers, Pennycook said that “some local authorities haven’t made these changes, they haven’t streamlined their process. And I think bringing that clarity and uniformity across the country…will help speed up the process.” Starmer has made a goal of building 1.5 million homes by the next election one of Labour’s signature pledges, but experts are already casting doubt on his chances of hitting the target as the rate of homebuilding slumps. Only 184,390 homes were finished last year, and construction began on just 132,460.
> Pennycook acknowledged that “the trough that we’re in is deeper than we expected” and that the target was “more challenging” than initially thought. However, he insisted that he was “on track”, arguing that his reforms would produce “very, very high rates” of homebuilding in the later years of this parliament. He said: “I think we will see in the coming months a significant increase in planning application numbers start to feed through. “We will see that feed through, as it needs to, into very, very high rates of housing supply in the later years of the parliament.”
> Some estimates suggest that Britain will need to be building more than 400,000 homes a year by the end of the decade to hit Labour’s target. Pennycook said: “You can do the maths as to where we are and where we will need to be to hit that 1.5 [million], but it does absolutely involve some very steep increase over the parliament.” Pennycook and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, are also pressing Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, for billions of pounds at the spending review to kickstart a big programme of council house-building, describing previous funding as a “down payment”.
> Pennycook stressed that he could only meet the 1.5 million target “on the basis of a set menu of changes, not à la carte”. He said: “We have to do everything we committed to doing. That includes a significant boost in social and affordable housebuilding.” However, he has rejected calls from some Labour MPs to water down environmental protections to boost growth, saying: “We don’t think we need to go down that route.” He promised that any repeat of the notorious £100 million HS2 bat tunnel would be avoided by Labour’s plan to make developers pay for nature restoration elsewhere. “We are allowing developers to pay in, get moving on building, but to lead to better outcomes overall through environmental delivery plans.”
!ping UK&YIMBY