Newts can’t be ‘more protected than people who need housing’, Rayner says

Angela Rayner has said the UK should not be in a situation where “newts are more protected than people” who need housing, ahead of a government shake-up of planning.

The deputy Prime Minister suggested protecting the country’s wildlife should not always be prioritised over building new homes, after Sir Keir Starmer last week reiterated his party’s pledge to build 1.5m new homes over the course of the Parliament.

The Prime Minister also said his government would accelerate planning decisions on some 150 major infrastructure projects by the end of the decade in a bid to turbocharge growth.

Rayner told Sky News: “We can’t have a situation where newts are more protected than people who desperately need housing.

“What we need is a process which says ‘protect nature and wildlife, but not at the expense of us building the houses’. We could do both.”

It comes ahead of Rayner this week announcing a “sweeping overhaul” of council planning committees, with applications which meet local development plan requirements set to bypass council committees, with the ambition to end delays to new homebuilding schemes.

Housing reforms

Rayner, who is also housing secretary, said the moves – including mandatory housing targets – would “unblock the clogged-up planning system that serves as a chokehold on growth”.

Major changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which sets out national building priorities, will also be revealed, as well as compulsory training for some councillors.

Asked by Sir Trevor Phillips if this meant fewer protections for newts, bats, and kittiwakes, the cabinet minister said: “We can look after them, but at the same time not stop building.”

She also rejected suggestions her changes would see local democracy restricted, and told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I don’t accept that, because we’re saying they have to have a local plan, local democracy, and we’re saying the national planning policy framework, national democracy, we’re elected to build the 1.5m homes.”

She added: “What we’ve seen is, because we haven’t had these compulsory plans locally, is speculative development where green belt land has been developed on because we haven’t had the local plan that delivers for local people.

“We’ve told councils, they’ve got to have those plans. If developers follow the framework, the national framework which protects environments, looks at a number of different elements and also follows the local plan, they shouldn’t be stuck in the system for years.”

Labour resets?

Planning changes will also prevent future delays to prisons being built, the government has said, as it committed to opening up 14,000 new places under a prisons capacity strategy.

Shadow levelling up and housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake said: “Angela Rayner failed to answer basic questions on the viability of Labour’s house building target.

“The truth is that Labour under Keir Starmer has had so many resets that the housing secretary can’t say this will even still be the target in a years’ time.”

He argued: “Without a plan for migration the government doesn’t know what housing will be needed where, how and when.

“Labour’s failure to set out a commitment on migration means strain on public services, less available housing, and the OBR already said Labour won’t meet their target.

“This looks set to be yet another Labour broken promise.”