UK restores housebuilding targets and sets out green belt review in planning push

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ Labour government has unveiled a series of reforms to the planning system, including a review of the green belt, to help address “the most acute housing crisis in living memory.”

Under new policies confirmed today, local authorities will again be given mandatory housing targets to help “pave the way” to deliver 1.5m homes over the course of the parliament.

Where authorities are struggling to meet their target, they will have to review green belt land and find potential ‘grey belt’ land for development. If authorities are failing to meet their targets, the government could take over its plan-making authority directly.

“Our decisive reforms to the planning system correct the errors of the past and set us on our way to tackling the housing crisis, delivering 1.5m homes for those who really need them,” deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner said in a statement to the House of Commons.

The reforms met with approvals from many in the industry, who have been calling for reforms to the planning system for years.

Mark Allan, chief executive at FTSE 100-listed property investment firm Landsec, said: “This is an extensive set of measures which tackle many of the issues we face within the planning system”.

Justin Young, chief executive at Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), said planning reforms would have a meaningful impact on economic productivity while helping to “move the dial” for those most in need.

Consultation on the proposed reforms will be open until 24 September and the government will publish revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) before the end of the year.

The announcements centre around the reintroduction of housing targets for local authorities, a policy which was ditched by the Conservatives back in 2022 under pressure from backbenchers.

The targets will be calculated with reference to the size of the existing community. London will have a target of 80,000 homes, down from a previous target of 100,000.

These new targets will flow into the development of local plans, through which the government said communities can “have a say” in building new homes and infrastructure. Local plans set the guidelines which developers must meet in order to secure approval for new projects.

To help ensure local authorities meet their housebuilding targets, the government said the “default answer” for developments on brownfield land would be ‘yes’.

Where authorities are struggling to meet their targets, councils will have to find ‘grey belt’ land for development. This includes land on the edge of existing settlements or roads, as well as old petrol stations and car parks. 

Analysis from Knight Frank suggests that previously developed land makes up just one per cent of the green belt, with the land concentrated around London and the south.

Changing the green belt has been a politically controversial topic, with previous governments shying away from the issue. Despite the political controversy around the green belt, many experts argued that the reforms were necessary to help ensure the government met its targets.

“Green belt reform in particular is welcome,” Andrew Carter, chief executive at the Centre for Cities said.

“The UK’s biggest cities are surrounded by green belts several times their size, constraining the supply of homes for people who live and work in these places,” Carter added.

The government confirmed that land released in the Green Belt will be subject to new rules ensuring that development should deliver 50 per cent affordable homes. It stressed that land safeguarded for environmental reasons will “continue to be protected”.

Rayner needs to oversee a big increase in housebuilding to meet the government’s ambitious target. Official figures showed that there number of new homes stayed flat at 230,000 last year and are expected to fall below 200,000 this year.

Reflecting the expected shortfall this year, the annual housing target was raised to 370,000.

A range of other measures were revealed by Rayner as the government seeks to unblock housing development and deliver economic growth.

The government confirmed its intention to introduce a “universal system of strategic planning” to drive development at a national scale.

The Right to Buy scheme will also come under review, with the government confirming it would bring forward a consultation in the autumn. In the short term it will increase the flexibility on how councils can spend income from Right to Buy.

“Our new flexibilities for councils will boost the number of social and affordable homes, and give working families a better route to a secure home,” Rayner said.