Councils are braced for brutal housebuilding targets today as Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner vow to rip up the ‘broken’ planning system.
The PM and his deputy are unveiling a radical overhaul of the rules designed to prevent so-called ‘Nimbys’ blocking development.
The changes could see hundreds of thousands of acres of Green Belt land redesignated as low-value ‘grey belt’ land, as the government scrambles to generate 1.5million new homes by the next election.
The new framework will also impose mandatory housing numbers on local authorities across the country – many of which have been condemned as unachievable.
The government released estimates of the targets for local areas in the summer, which are set to be confirmed in documents published later.
Those projections included comparisons to existing targets under the current method, first introduced in 2018, as well as the average number of new homes that have actually been built in recent years.
In Fareham, Labour’s new method would require the local Tory-controlled council to build 794 new houses – up from a target of 498 when calculated by the current method.
That was nearly seven times the average number of new homes built in the Hampshire town – where Tory ex-home secretary Suella Braverman is the local MP – in 2020/21 and 2022/23 of just 115.
Angela Rayner and Keir Starmer are unveiling the planning changes today
Similarly, nearby Portsmouth City Council could be told to build 1,098 new homes under Labour’s new target, up from 897 using the current method.
Just 132 new homes have actually been built there, on average, in recent years.
North Yorkshire could be ordered to build 4,232 new homes.
That is up from the 1,361 homes under the current target, although an average of 3,150 new homes were built annually across 2020/21 and 2022/23.
Cornwall could be told to build 4,454 homes under Labour’s target, up from 2,707 using the current method and more than the 2,681 homes built, on average, in recent years.
The Isle of Wight could be told to build more than double the average number of new homes it achieved in those two years (499) under a proposed new target of 1,104.
Overall, the South East might be required to build almost 70,000 new homes a year under the proposed new method for determining housing targets.
This was up from 51,251 under the current method and second only to London (80,693) under the proposed new method.
It was higher than the East of England (45,858), South West (40,343), North West (37,817), West Midlands (31,754), East Midlands (27,382), Yorkshire and The Humber (27,433), and North East (12,202).
One expert claimed the Green Belt overhaul could free up space for 2.5 million homes.
That sparked warning that the changes will trigger a new wave of ‘urban sprawl’ – which the designation was meant to avoid.
The Deputy PM revealed the collective total for local targets would be just over 370,000 homes a year – as she bids to deliver 1.5million new homes over the next five years
The move reverses the last Tory government’s decision to drop targets after deciding they were counterproductive.
Councillors on planning committees will be stripped of the right to block individual developments if they conform to planning guidelines.
Ministers will also gain new powers to bypass the normal planning process on key infrastructure – such as prisons and the electricity pylons that link new wind and solar farms to the grid.
Today’s package will provide £100 million to councils to help them update their plans and assess which areas of their local green belt should be released for development.
Ahead of the announcement, Ms Rayner said the reforms were needed to boost growth and hit Labour’s target of building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, and that ministers were ready to ‘do what it takes’ to fix the housing crisis.