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Labour pledges planning reforms to increase building of affordable homes
The Labour Party has vowed to reform the planning system to get more affordable homes built and tackle the housing crisis.
The pledge was made yesterday in a 10-page document published to coincide with a speech by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on growing the economy.
Among the party’s first policy steps, if elected, would be “helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder and building more affordable homes by reforming planning rules and arcane compulsory purchase rules, with new protections for renters”, the document said.
No other detail was offered on how the party intends to reform planning or tackle the other promises.
However the document suggested that “vested interests” will need to be addressed to deliver planning reform. The document said: “What are the vested interests we need to overcome to achieve this mission, especially on issues like planning reform?”
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In his speech to banking lobby group UK Finance, Sir Keir said: “If you think… that the planning system should favour the already wealthy, not the new houses, wind farms, and laboratories we need to create more wealth – then that’s not going to work for us. That’s not going to work for growth and won’t deliver what our country needs.”
Another housing-related promise made by Labour in the past six months is a vow to restore social housing as the country’s second-biggest tenure by building a “new generation of council housing”.
It also promising a new private renters’ charter, which will include ending no-fault evictions, a long-stated Conservative commitment that has not yet come into force.
The Labour Party is currently odds-on favourite with all major bookmakers to win the next General Election.
It comes as the Conservatives’ latest attempts at planning reform have been delayed after a rebellion by its own MPs over a push to water down housebuilding targets for councils.
Boris Johnson failed to get through planning reforms, while David Cameron’s unsuccessful efforts resulted in a battle with the National Trust and The Telegraph.
The government is also facing opposition to its current planning reforms on other fronts.
The National Housing Federation is among 18 groups that have raised fresh concerns over the impact the new Infrastructure Levy will have on delivering affordable housing. The controversial levy is a replacement for Section 106.
In a letter to housing secretary Michael Gove last week, the groups said they were “concerned by the government’s apparent willingness to press ahead with unevidenced planning reforms, which risk worsening pre-existing pressures on the supply of affordable and social housing”.
Among the other signatories to the letter are the Chartered Institute of Housing, the G15, Shelter and Crisis.
