Housebuilding targets could force councils in England to build in ‘grey belt’ | Angela Rayner

Councils in England could be forced to build on low-quality green belt sites to meet mandatory housebuilding targets under a government overhaul of planning rules.

Under the new regime, all local authorities will have a duty to provide more housing and, unless they produce a clear plan for how this will happen, ministers could step in and take over the process.

Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, presented the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for England to the House of Commons on Tuesday. It is being presented as the first step in a series of reforms aimed at delivering on Labour’s promise to build 1.5 million new homes this parliament.

Rayner told MPs the collective total of new mandatory housing targets would rise from 300,000 a year to 370,000, with all areas required to build.

“Some people will find this uncomfortable, and others will try to compromise,” she said. “To that I say: we are facing a housing crisis and we have a duty to make real change, and we all have to play our part.”

Officials estimate the current projection is less than 200,000 homes a year, of which just over 100,000 are affordable. Future plans could make the right to buy scheme less attractive for social tenants and give councils the opportunity to invest the proceeds of these sales in new homes.

Rayner said the government’s plans would involve “the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation”.

Other changes are expected to include doubling the cost for households to apply for planning permission, so that councils can cover the costs of the process, and changes to streamline the work of local authority planning committees, so that they mainly review large-scale projects, with civil servants taking responsibility for smaller projects.

Perhaps one of the most controversial elements of the planning overhaul is the provision for councils to review local green belt land and identify so-called grey belt sites, within the green belt but considered not to contribute to its usefulness.

Where councils fail to do this properly, housebuilding companies can bring forward their own development proposals in what they see as a grey area.

The full definition of the grey belt will be included in the new NPPF, which will be out for consultation until September, but it will include sites on the outskirts of existing towns and villages, next to roads and former petrol stations or car parks.

Such projects in the green belt will be subject to special rules, including that at least 50% of housing must be affordable and that the projects must be accompanied by infrastructure and a net increase in access to green spaces.

Rayner officials say there are simply not enough brownfield sites – those not in the green belt and already built on – to meet the demand for new housing.

By next year, all local councils will have to have a new local plan, drawn up under the revised framework. Currently, two-thirds of them have plans that are at least five years old.

Much of these changes are aimed at removing what the new government sees as barriers to development in the current NPPF, which made local targets effectively advisory and easy for councils to avoid for a variety of reasons.

One change will be to remove the requirement that new projects be “beautiful,” a requirement officials say is too subjective and does not guarantee good design.

At the national level, the new planning framework will no longer be based on population projections, but on a broader measure linked to housing stock, meaning that all areas will be obliged to build new housing, with greater targeting of areas that need it most.

Responding to the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, criticised the removal of the “beautiful” stipulation and questioned why London’s building targets were being cut.

“The government risks choosing the worst of both worlds,” she said. “It’s not addressing the fundamental economics of housebuilding, it’s centralising decision-making and when you look at it all, it looks like 1.5 million people will be a distant aspiration rather than a meaningful goal.”

Another element of this national plan will be reforms aimed at improving the construction of infrastructure linked to new housing and introducing projects such as solar and wind farms, which would give a boost to the economy.

Further changes, some of which will be included in a planning and infrastructure bill, could give councils the power to set their own planning fees to cover costs, as well as a wider review of the right to buy system, which could limit eligibility and prevent new social homes from being sold.