With the election fading in the rear-view mirror of political discourse, the Labour Party is starting to set out its policy agenda to the British public. We saw a very heated debate between the current Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the ex-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt about the state of the UK’s finances. Rachel Reeves is arguing that the Conservatives have lied to the British public about how bad finances truly are, whereas Jeremy Hunt is arguing that Reeves is “directly contradicting the documents and legislation the Government has put before Parliament, signed off by senior civil servant accounting officers”.
Between the usual politics of the Westminster machine, we have seen Labour unveil more detail on its policy agenda for housebuilding and planning. Speaking in the House of Commons, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has unveiled proposed reforms to the NPPF designed to unblock construction and boost housing delivery. This target has been described as ambitious by even the most prominent twitter YIMBYs, so many eagerly await detail of how exactly Labour plans to achieve this.
In a statement to Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has revealed that local housing targets will now become mandatory, and the total number of new homes per year under housing targets will rise from 300,000 to over 370,000. Rayner then made it clear she “will not hesitate” to intervene in areas that do not build enough homes as she reclassified areas of land currently called Green Belt under a new name, ‘Grey Belt’ – terminology which, the Government hopes, will take the heat and emotion out of local debate on development.
For those of us in the planning and development industry, this is a significant development. Under the last Government’s changes to the NPPF, councils could avoid building houses by citing the potential impact on Green Belt land. Rayner has now made it clear that this will no longer be acceptable. Additionally, there has been a strong push from the Government for affordable housing with Rayner stating that, under the new NPPF, 50% of housing on Green Belt land will need to be affordable.
Angela Rayner then turned her glare onto local councils that have been reluctant, slow or unsuccessful in putting an up-to-date local plan in place – two-thirds of local authorities in England fall into this group according to Rayner.
In a letter to local authorities about the changes, Rayner has stressed that “we want decisions on where to release land to remain locally led, as we believe that local authorities are in the best position to judge what land within current Green Belt boundaries will be most suitable for development”. This is a sign that the Government hopes to achieve its ambitions without getting into a fight with council leaders. However, Rayner’s announcement and letter had a “pretty please with sugar on top” ring to them – á la the infamous Pulp Fiction scene where Harvey Keitel imposes his will on Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta.
One interesting takeaway from Angela Rayner’s speech was the cutting of house building targets in London by 20,000 a year while increasing them for areas in the Home Counties together with some huge increases in parts of the North – shifting the housing ‘load’ at the expense of non-Labour areas perhaps or may be a first step in a broader industrial strategy to shift economic activity northwards? This decision has already raised eyebrows – for example, with professor Tim Leunig, economist at the London School of Economics, and will doubtless be the subject of debate over the coming months.
Another significant change in Labour’s revised planning guidelines is the removal of almost every instance of the word “beautiful” from the requirements for new homes. Angela Rayner has defended this decision, arguing that beauty is subjective and its interpretation can lead to inconsistencies. In response, Shadow Housing Secretary Kemi Badenoch accused her of allowing the construction of millions of “ugly homes”. This omission of the term “beautiful” raises questions about the future role of the Office for Place, established by Michael Gove, and the broader impact on design codes in the planning process.
Alongside Angela Rayner’s statement, the Government announced the New Towns Taskforce, whose role it will be to find appropriate locations for new towns within 12 months. The taskforce will be led by Sir Michael Lyons and Dame Kate Barker. The selection of Kate Barker is particularly interesting, given she ran the Housing Policy Unit under Tony Blair, and authored the Barker Review into Land Use in 2006. Barker also recently penned a letter to the Housing Minister setting out her initial recommendations for housing and planning.
Overall, this is a big step forward for the pro-development agenda. Councils have under-delivered on housing, but Angela Rayner has made it absolutely clear that nothing will stand in the way of increasing the delivery of new homes. What remains to be seen is whether the government will be firm in the face of opposition from their own councils and MPs investing political capital in delivering a step-change to housebuilding – but, as Angela Rayner said, this is “only the first step”.