The government has set an “immediate mandatory” target for councils across England to construct 370,000 new houses annually, aiming to deliver 1.5 million additional homes by the end of this Parliament.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that local authorities must commit to timetables for new housing development plans within 12 weeks “or ministers will not hesitate to use their existing suite of intervention powers to ensure plans are put in place.”
Starmer said that under the current planning framework, just under one-third of local authorities have adopted a local plan within the past five years, with the number of homes granted planning permission falling to its lowest level in a decade.
“We owe it to those working families to take urgent action, and that is what this government is doing,“ the prime minister said, adding that his government will ”overhaul the broken planning system and put roofs over the heads of working families and drive the growth that will put more money in people’s pockets.”
Some Greenbelt to Go Grey
The announcement coincides with the updating of the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which will commit to a “brownfield first” strategy for development.
Disused sites that have previously been developed on—such as former factories, petrol stations, and car parks—will be prioritised for new housing construction.
“Brownfield land must continue to be the first port of call for any new development and the default answer when asked to build on brownfield should always be ‘yes,’” the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government (HCLG) said.
But councils have also been told to review their greenbelt zones.
The NPPF now requires councils to assess greenbelt boundaries and identify parts considered lower quality or underutilised, which will be reclassified as “grey belt” land.
Pressure on Local Government
Provisional plans for building 1.5 million homes in the course of this parliament were first outlined in July by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who is also the secretary of state for housing.Rayner hailed the updated NPPF plans which she said will “shake up a broken planning system which caves into the blockers and obstructs the builders.”
Putting pressure on councils, the minister said: “We expect every local area to adopt a plan to meet their housing need. The question is where the homes and local services people expect are built, not whether they are built at all.”
The HCLG will also add extra mechanisms to push local authorities to adopt housebuilding strategies quickly. The department said that if development plans based on old targets are still in place from July 2026, “councils will need to provide for an extra year’s supply of homes in their pipeline – six years instead of five.”
‘Bulldozing’ Through Local Concerns
Local council organisations have expressed concern over the mandatory, top-down plans, including the Local Government Association (LGA) which called for a collaborative approach and for any national formulas to be supplemented with local input.LGA housing spokesman Adam Hug said that councils and communities know their local areas best, and are “best placed to make judgement decisions on how to manage competing demand for land use through the local plan-led system.”
The County Councils Network (CCN) also said that “there is little to back up their rhetoric” in the NPPF on ensuring there is sufficient infrastructure, such as roads, schools, and GP surgeries.
Richard Clewer, housing and planning spokesman for the CCN, said, “Considering much of the new development will be in parts of county areas with limited public transport and services, it is vital the Government sets out ways to better capture the money required to build the necessary infrastructure.”
Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake said that the Labour government will “bulldoze through the concerns of local communities.”
“If Labour really want homes to be built where they are needed, they must think again,” said Hollinrake.
