Rayner announces drastic reforms to planning rules as new mandatory housing targets introduced

The Deputy Prime Minister has re-introduced new mandatory building targets among other measures to help speed up the building of new homes, as ITV News political correspondent Carl Dinnen reports.

Angela Rayner has announced an overhaul of the planning system, with mandatory housing targets re-introduced to pave the way for 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.

The deputy prime minister and housing secretary has reversed a decision made by the Conservative government to scrap housing targets, which will free up some green belt land for construction.

"What I say won't be without controversy, but this is urgent because this Labour government is not afraid to take on the tough choices needed to deliver for our country", Rayner told MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

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Announcing the plans as part of the new government's mission to "get Britain building", Rayner blamed the previous government for hampering housing supply more than expected.

The deputy prime minister unveiled forecasts that fewer than 200,000 homes would be built in 2024-25 under Tory policies – far below their annual 300,000 target.

Rayner accused the previous government of "caving in to their anti-growth backbenchers".

Her reforms make explicit that the default answer to brownfield development should be “yes” and promote homebuilding at greater densities in urban centres, like towns and cities.

But because there is not enough brownfield land in the country to meet housing needs, the government will allow the targeted release of so-called grey belt land, which includes disused petrol stations and car parks on parts of protected land known as the green belt.

"This is urgent", Rayner tells Commons

Any green belt land released will be subject to “golden rules” to ensure the development delivers 50% affordable homes and has access to green spaces and infrastructure such as schools and GP surgeries.

The method for local authorities to calculate how much land they must allocate for new housing, which relied on data from 2014, will be updated to ensure stock is boosted in every part of the country.

Rayner also unveiled immediate measures to counter the decline in the number of social and affordable housing through new flexibilities for councils, including allowing them to use their right-to-buy receipts to build and buy more social homes.

“Today I’m calling on local authorities, housing associations and industry to work with me to deliver a council house revolution,” Ms Rayner told the Commons, promising the “biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation”.

Labour also intends to drop the requirement for new homes to be “beautiful”, introduced by the Conservatives, arguing it is subjective, difficult to define and leads to inconsistent decision-making on applications.

The ruling party’s manifesto used different language, outlining instead its aim for “exemplary” development to be “the norm not the exception”.

Shadow Housing Secretary and Tory leadership hopefully Kemi Badenoch hit out at Rayner over the change in language, saying "people deserve to live in beautiful homes", and accusing the government of building "1.5 million ugly houses instead."

In response, Rayner insisted the houses build by the Labour government "will be beautiful."

Various new Cabinet ministers have addressed the Commons over the last week to outline the issues they have found in their departments since taking over, blaming the former Tory government for mismanagement.

On Monday Chancellor Rachel Reeves said there is a £22 billion hole in the public finances, blaming the former government for overspending on this year’s budgets by billions of pounds after making a series of "unfunded commitments".

Reeves announced a series of "incredibly tough choices" to tackle the black-hole, including scrapping winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.

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