‘This is a blow’: sector responds to Gove’s planning reforms

Yet he added that local authorities have a “licence to resist intensification through design codes” and said green belt boundaries would not have to be reviewed during local plan-making.

In addition, planning authorities are no longer required to maintain five-year land supply if they have a local plan that is less than five years old, he said.

The watering down of housing targets was first promised in December 2022 to stave off a rebellion from Conservative MPs concerned about the level of housebuilding in their constituencies.

On Monday, the housing secretary wrote to mayor of London Sadiq Khan, criticising him for “failing to provide affordable homes” in the capital and saying he would review the devolved administration’s London Plan.

Greg Reed, group chief executive of Places for People, said: “There is a huge homelessness crisis upon us and today the government has relaxed its own housing targets. This is a blow to those desperate for somewhere to call home now and in the future.”

Mr Reed welcomed the “greater accountability on local authorities” and Mr Gove’s promises of a faster planning process.

During his speech, Mr Gove said he would publish league tables of local planning authorities by speed of decision-making and said increased planning fees must be spent on improving the planning service for developers.

Yet Mr Reed added “the reality is that government has today given decision-makers more freedom to reject new housing developments. Fewer of the desperately needed new homes will be delivered as a result”.

James Prestwich, director of policy and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said the measures “fall some way short of the action needed to address the national housing crisis”.

“Requiring local authorities to have an up-to-date plan in place is a step in the right direction, but relaxing national planning targets undermines its impact and will hamper efforts to build the homes, and particularly the homes for social rent, the country desperately needs,” he said.

Jamie Ratcliff, chief communities and sustainability officer at Sovereign Network Group, took a more positive view.

He said the secretary of state’s focus on “good community involvement, infrastructure, beauty and protecting the environment is very welcome”.

Stronger requirements for local plans are “also positive”, he added.

However, Mr Ratcliff said housing “needs to be treated as critical national infrastructure and further recognised for the enormous value it brings to communities and the national economy”.

Ian Fletcher, policy director at the British Property Federation, a trade body for developers, said government needs to “use the carrot as well as the stick” by providing more resources for planning departments and a clear policy framework to shape how local plans are developed. 

Clive Betts MP, Labour chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, said the speech did not provide clarity on “how we are to achieve the national housing target of building 300,000 net new homes per year by the mid-2020s”.

He added: “For all the talk of getting tough with local authorities, without mandatory local housing targets, it’s not clear how many houses will need to be built in local areas to deliver the national target”.

Darren Rodwell, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, defended Mr Gove’s action on housing targets.

He said: “We are pleased government has confirmed that housing targets will become an advisory starting point which will take into account local circumstances.

“The reality is that planning is not a barrier to housebuilding. Nine in 10 planning applications are approved by councils, despite significant resourcing and capacity issues across the country.”

Guy Burnett, executive director of development at So Resi, said: “This policy will lead to a decline in housebuilding, and by consequence a shrinkage in affordable housing, including shared ownership and Rent to Buy homes, no matter how it’s packaged.

“That is due to inconsistency across local authorities in their approach to development. The abolition of housing targets has exacerbated this and is not an equitable approach for our country.”

“Affordability is already at crisis levels, and offering councils the scope to reduce housing targets will push up house prices in the first instance, reduce investment back into communities through avenues such as Section 106 and, most concerningly, damage the survival chances of already-limited affordable housing starts.

“These are not the conditions that allow first-time buyers to thrive.”

Bartek Staniszewski, senior researcher at centre-right thinktank Bright Blue, said Mr Gove “seems to want to have the cake and eat it”.

“While selling democracy and greater development levels as complementary may be good rhetoric, the reality is that good politics requires bold decisions and the willingness to accept pay-offs.

“Relaxing the need for local authorities that do not meet the local housing need to deliver land for development, at the same time as calling out local authorities that under-deliver planning consents, sends a mixed message, and the newly announced reviews of planning delays and the London Plan are too little, too late,” he said. 

Mr Staniszewski added that “this government no longer has the time nor ambition to bring about the change that the UK needs”.