Housing secretary pledges to remove 鈥榮ubjectiveness鈥� and allow applications to be approved if they follow local plan and NPPF

Angela Rayner has announced plans to allow planning officers to approve applications without permission from committees of councillors if they comply with local plans and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

The housing secretary and deputy prime minister, speaking on the BBC yesterday, unveiled plans to overhaul local planning committees in a bid to boost housebuilding.

She said: 鈥淎t the moment, we haven鈥檛 had mandatory local plans, and therefore we鈥檝e seen speculative developments in areas through permitted development.

鈥淚鈥檓 saying to local planning and local authorities, get your plan in order so you decide - based on the affordability and the challenges in your area that you know about - where you think this development should happen, if they [the plans] follow the NPPF and that local plan, then we shouldn鈥檛 have it stuck in the system for years.鈥�

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Source: MHCLG/Flickr

Angela Rayner wants to accelerate housebuilding programmes in the UK

Asked whether the plans amount to a reduction in local democracy, Rayner said: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 accept that, because we鈥檙e saying they [councils] have to have a local plan - [which is] local democracy- and we were elected to build the 1.5m homes [which is] national democracy鈥�

Rayner said the government will 鈥渢ake away the subjectiveness that happens at a local level鈥�.

The announcement follows prime minister Keir Starmer doubling down on his commitment to build 1.5 million homes over the next parliament at a speech last week as one of six 鈥渕ilestones鈥� for his government to reach by 2029.

>>See also: New government鈥檚 rhetoric already affecting planning, says Berkeley

Rayner was also asked whether there will be enough skilled workers to be able to build 1.5 million homes.

She said the government has put an extra 拢140m into contruction hubs to train people.

She added: 鈥淎ll of the ministers under our planning reforms will look at national strategic planning and will be able to move resources so that the infrastructure is there.

鈥淧eople are absolutely right, you can鈥檛 build lots more housing in an area if you don鈥檛 have the roads, you don鈥檛 have the GP surgeries and you don鈥檛 have the schools that people desperately need. So building in that into our plans and making sure that that is delivered at the same time is critical to getting buy in.鈥�

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