Thousands more homes could be built within 10 minutes of transport hubs, including on green belt sites, under a loosening of planning policy announced by Angela Rayner on Monday.
The housing secretary will set out changes to national planning guidance for England that will include an order for councils to have a “default yes” approach to housing developments that are within a reasonable walking distance of well-connected train and tram stations.
If a proposed development is on green belt land, then the government’s “golden rules” state that they must have higher levels of affordable housing, new or improved green spaces, and be supported by the right infrastructure.
The approach was put out to consultation under Rayner’s predecessor, Steve Reed, but the guidance will be confirmed as part of the new national planning policy framework (NPPF) this week.
Rayner is billing the changes as part of the biggest rewrite of planning rules in more than a decade as the government moves towards its target of 1.5m new homes being built by the end of this parliament. The government is about a quarter of the way to its target, two years into a five-year parliament.
There will also be new minimum expectations for how much housing should be built in these areas.
Rayner said on Sunday it would help address the fact that “too many people are being priced out of the communities where they want to live and work”.
“By unlocking thousands of homes around well-connected transport hubs, we’re helping people live closer to work, school and the services they rely on, while backing local businesses and driving growth in our communities,” she said. “That’s how we’ll tackle the housing crisis and raise living standards for people in every corner of the country.”
The new NPPF is aimed at providing clearer national policies for plan-making and decision-making, meaning that conflicting local policies will carry less weight when they are inconsistent with national policies.
Other changes will include:
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Stronger support in principle for development, meaning a more explicit presumption in favour of building in sustainable locations.
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Pubs will get protection from being turned into housing or offices with developers having to prove there is no reasonable prospect of keeping a pub as a going concern, including evidence that it was marketed for sale for at least a year.
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A requirement for at least 40% of homes to be accessible on bigger developments and stronger protections for community facilities.
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Stronger support for growth and infrastructure including support for AI growth zones and datacentres.
The changes were criticised by the Conservatives and Reform UK for taking power away from local communities in contrast to Andy Burnham’s promise that he would increase devolution to councils.
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James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, said: “To try to fix their own mess, Labour are planning a power grab, seizing control from local communities and forcing them to accept development in the wrong areas because Labour won’t build in the right areas. Labour’s planning power grab is exposing our green belt and countryside to unauthorised Traveller sites, and ministers are turning a blind eye.”
Reform’s deputy leader and business spokesperson, Richard Tice, said the plans were “in direct contradiction of Andy Burnham’s devolution agenda”.
“Far from empowering local councils who actually know their communities, they strip power from the people who live there and hand it to Whitehall so ministers can ram through major housing developments while sidelining residents and ignoring the infrastructure that already can’t cope,” he said.
However, experts at the Centre for Cities welcomed the policy, saying it was crucial to growth and productivity.
Andrew Carter, chief executive of the thinktank, said that a default ‘yes’ to homes near stations was “a vital reform that opens up space for high numbers of homes to be built in the long term, all of them well connected to jobs in major cities”.
“These homes will provide more people with a place to live and access to higher income,” he added. “Up to now, green belts that surround big cities have prevented development at key locations along commuter routes. Permission by default to build around stations opens these sites up for development again, without affecting more than a tiny fraction of green belt land.”
