Housing minister Matthew Pennycook said the Government is ‘absolutely willing’ to step in an impose housing plans if councils refuse to do so as part of a bid to deliver 1.5million homes
A housing minister has warned that the Government is “absolutely willing” to go to war with councils who refuse to accept homebuilding targets.
Matthew Pennycook said ministers won’t hesitate to intervene if town halls refuse to comply as a huge drive to deliver much-needed homes is launched. In extreme cases, he warned, ministers will take control of producing an area’s local plan – which dictates how housing is delivered.
Labour has vowed to ensure 1.5million new homes are build by the end of this Parliament. Mr Pennycook told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We want to support those authorities that share our ambition, that are working in good faith to get those plans in place… but those small number of recalcitrant authorities that say ‘no, we are not complying, we will not look to meet these housing targets, we will not work to put local plans in place’ – we are absolutely willing to use the full range of ministerial intervention power.”
He added: “There is a series of escalating steps we can take bearing down on performance. But in extremis, I want to be very clear about this, the Government can take a local plan off a local authority that is resisting putting one in place, and we are absolutely willing to do it, if we have evidence that individual local planning authorities are refusing to comply.
“Refusing to allow their communities, their residents, to shape development in the way that best suits them in a given area – we are willing to step in if that happens.”
Under Labour’s plans, councils will be ordered to review their green belt boundaries – and identify lower quality “grey belt” land that could be built on.
Mr Pennycook refused to give a number on how many homes will be built annually, but said rates will speed up in coming years. He told Sky News: “Projections put supply at less than 200,000 homes this coming year, so we’re in a trough and we’ve got a steep climb out of that trough.
“So it’s not as simple as to say we’re going to do 300,000 every year. That’s why we deliberately picked that 1.5 million target. We’re not putting a number on it as we come out.”
He said the number of homes built annually would need to rise significantly later in the Parliament to meet the goal. An updated national planning policy framework (NPPF) will commit to a “brownfield first” strategy – with disused sites that have already been developed in the past prioritised for new building.
The default answer when a developer seeks to build on brownfield sites will be “yes” under the strategy. It comes as Keir Starmer vowed to deal with planning “blockers”.
He said: “With a generation of young people whose dream of homeownership feels like a distant reality, and record levels of homelessness, there’s no shying away from the housing crisis we have inherited”.
