House-builders will swerve scrutiny by local council planning committees in a government bid to thwart protests by Nimby neighbours and fast-track new homes.

Deputy Premier Angela Rayner will on Thursday announce an overhaul of planning rules to let developers ‘skip’ a stage in the process and foil Nimbys, the acronym for ‘Not In My Back Yard’.

However, critics fear this means residents will not be able to have their objections represented.

Ms Rayner said: ‘Building more homes and infrastructure across the country means unblocking the clogged-up planning system that serves as a chokehold on growth.

‘The government will deliver a sweeping overhaul of the creaking local planning committee system.

‘Streamlining the approvals process by modernising local planning committees means tackling the chronic uncertainty and damaging delays that act as a drag anchor on building the homes that people desperately need.’

Under the scheme, applications that comply with local development criteria for how many homes need to be built will bypass planning committees entirely.

Those applications will go straight to planning officers, who will look at technical details including whether they comply with building safety regulations.

Deputy Premier Angela Rayner will on Thursday announce an overhaul of planning rules to let developers ‘skip’ a stage in the process and foil Nimbys, the acronym for ‘Not In My Back Yard’

The overhaul of the current rules around planning is a bid to meet the Government’s new homes target (Stock Image)

Last week Sir Keir Starmer slated ‘blockers and bureaucrats who have stopped the country building, choked off growth and driven prices through the roof’

Planning officers will have an ‘enhanced decision-making role to implement agreed planning policy’.

Planning committee councillors, who will still consider more complex developments, will receive mandatory training. Government sources said the change is needed to speed up house-building and meet Labour’s target of creating 1.5 million new homes in five years.

In the first three months of this year, fewer than one in five applications were determined within the statutory 13-week period.

‘This move would skip that stage and would fast-track development,’ a government source said.

The planning process reforms, which will be put to consultation, are designed to ‘tackle unacceptable delays and unnecessary wasting of time and resources’.

The source added that planning committees are ‘councillors acting in a representative capacity’ and can significantly delay the process.

Last week Sir Keir Starmer slated ‘blockers and bureaucrats who have stopped the country building, choked off growth and driven prices through the roof’.

But Labour-run councils said they were on a ‘collision course’ with the government over the plans. Councillor Yvonne Gagen, leader of West Lancashire Council, called the targets ‘impossible’.

Dr Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said: ‘By empowering qualified planners to implement planning policies, councillors will have the time to focus on more significant cases, effectively speeding up the planning process.