Angela Rayner forces councils to surrender green belt with immediate new housing targets

Angela Rayner has announced that councils will be forced to surrender large parts of the green belt to achieve immediate new housing targets.

The move comes as ministers scramble to deliver their pledge to build 1.5 million new homes over five years. Under the plans, local authorities will have to review the green belt’s boundaries.

And they will have to use “grey belt” land, Sir Keir Starmer’s term for low-quality areas of the green belt, to meet ambitious mandatory targets to build 370,000 new homes a year.

Responding to the plans, Kevin Hollinrake, shadow housing secretary, said: “Labour will bulldoze through the concerns of local communities. If Labour really want homes to be built where they are needed, they must think again.”

And Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Gideon Amos accused Labour of “ignoring local communities. He added:” The new homes we need must be genuinely affordable and community led, not dictated from Whitehall diktat.”

On Wednesday it was reported that the controversial plans would give priority for housebuilding to an area of the green belt larger than Surrey.

In a bid to head off criticism, Ms Rayner, the deputy prime minister, said she would not shy away from “bold and decisive action” to fix the housing crisis.

“I will not hesitate to do what it takes to build 1.5 million new homes over five years and deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation,” she said. “We must all do our bit and we must all do more. 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.” 

Sir Keir said: “We owe it to those working families to take urgent action, and that is what this government is doing.”

The government’s plans would “put builders not blockers first, 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”, he added.

The plans would still see a “brownfield first approach”.

Grey belt land will also be defined in national planning policy for the first time.

In a bid to head off criticism, the government says it will bring in a new “golden rule” – development of the green belt will require developers to provide necessary infrastructure, such as nurseries, GP surgeries and transport.

The government will allocate £100m of extra cash for councils, along with 300 additional planning officers, to ease the process.

Ministers say they have been forced to act after they were left a system in which 1.3 million households are languishing on council house waiting lists and a record number, including 160,000 homes with children, are living in temporary accommodation.

Under the plans, areas where homes are most out of reach of ordinary people and have the greatest potential for growth will see their housebuilding targets increase.

Councils will also be warned they will be set targets for six years worth of homes – not five – if they don’t update their local development plans by July.

Councillor Adam Hug, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, called for a “collaborative approach” between councils and government. He added that it was “councils and communities who know their local areas and are therefore best placed to make judgement decisions on how to manage competing demand for land use”.