Housing secretary, Angela Rayner, will give planning officers the power to approve applications if they comply with local plans and the planning policy without seeking permission from committees of councillors.
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC yesterday, Rayner said that her plans would overhaul local planning committees and boost housebuilding to address the housing shortage.
Rayner said: “At the moment, we haven’t had mandatory local plans, and therefore we’ve seen speculative developments in areas through permitted development.”
“I’m saying to local planning and local authorities, get your plan in order so you decide – based on the affordability and the challenges in your area that you know about – where you think this development should happen, if they [the plans] follow the NPPF and that local plan, then we shouldn’t have it stuck in the system for years.”
The housing secretary was asked whether the plans would result in a local democracy being reduced, but Rayner disagreed, saying that councils will still have their democracy through the creation of their local plans.
The housing secretary said that the decision will “take away the subjectiveness that happens at a local level”.
The announcement of the plans comes after the prime minister reconfirmed the government’s commitment to its 1.5million homes target last week, including it as one of six key milestones for it to reach by 2029.
The housing secretary faced questions on whether the housebuilding industry had enough skilled workers to deliver the government’s ambitious housing target, saying that Labour had put an additional £140million into new construction hubs to train people.
Rayner added: “All of the ministers under our planning reforms will look at national strategic planning and will be able to move resources so that the infrastructure is there.”
“People are absolutely right, you can’t build lots more housing in an area if you don’t have the roads, you don’t have the GP surgeries, and you don’t have the schools that people desperately need. So building that into our plans and making sure that that is delivered at the same time is critical to getting buy-in.”
