Councils will be BANNED from blocking loft extensions and extra storeys, says Angel Rayner as she declares war on ‘NIMBYs’ with sweeping planning reforms_Nhy
Local councils will be blocked from preventing loft conversions and extra storeys being added to family homes under Angela Rayner‘s massive overhaul of planning laws.
The Housing Secretary said that ‘building up’ is one of the ways that the Government wants to tackle the UK’s homes shortage.
On Thursday Ms Rayner, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, will set out sweeping reform to planning rules designed to allow the creation of 1.5million new homes by 2029.
Among the reforms will be removing local councils’ ability to block upward extensions because they are too high, though they will still have to be in keeping with the ‘overall street scene’ and meet design rules.
Ms Rayner has already signalled she is prepared to take on ‘Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY)’ protesters by making it easier to build homes in designated areas.
But she is facing kick-back from councils which say her targets are unrealistic.
Ms Rayner told The Times: ‘We are serious about delivering for the British people and streamlining the planning process, and speeding up building is a fundamental part of our plan for change.
‘We are in the grip of an acute housing crisis. Expanding existing homes and building up is a great way to create more living space and will help us get Britain building as well as to meet our 1.5 million homes target.’
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said that ‘building up’ is one of the ways that the Government wants to tackle the UK’s homes shortage
Among the reforms will be removing local councils’ ability to block upward extensions because they are too high, or because neighbours’ homes are lower
It came as new figures show house prices in England have increased twice as fast as income since 2000 with the average home in London ‘unaffordable’ for even Britain’s highest earners.
The damning report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) astonishingly found that only the richest 10pc of households can afford to buy a home with less than five years of household income in the year to March 2023.
The average annual disposable income was at £35,000 during that period with the average cost of a home in England at £298,000, a ratio of 8.6 the ONS said.
For those in the poorest households, the average priced property in England was equivalent to 18.2 times above average income.
While the price of the average home in the capital was staggeringly deemed to be ‘unaffordable’ for every income group.
It compared to 5.8 in Wales, 5.6 in Scotland, and 5.0 in Northern Ireland.
ONS says it defines properties costing more than five years of income as ‘unaffordable’.
It lays bare the housing crisis gripping the nation as premier Sir Keir Starmer vowed to bulldoze the objections of local people to get hundreds of thousands of new homes built across Britain.
At the weekend Ms Rayner lashed out at environmental rules hindering house building today as she claimed newts are ‘more protected than people’.
The Housing Secretary suggested strict conservation regulations which have been accused of slowing down construction and making it more expensive could be side-stepped.
The Great Crested Newt is a protected species under UK laws carried over from when it was in the EU, which means it is an offence to ‘deliberately kill, injure, disturb or capture them or …destroy their breeding sites and resting places’ even if there are none there.
Bats have also been criticised for slowing down building work, because it is against the law to disturb them or their roosts.
Ms Rayner was on TV trying to sell Labour‘s plans to build 1.5million homes by 2029 and also vowed to take on local ‘not in my back yard’ campaigners with a streamlined planning process.
Asked about what she would do about the green laws hampering construction she told Sky News‘ Sunday with Trevor Phillips: ‘Well, I believe we can offset, look after them but at the same time not stop building.
‘Because we can’t have a situation where newts are more protected than people who desperately need housing.
‘What we need is a process which says protect nature and wildlife. But not at the expense of us building the houses we could do both.’
But Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow housing secretary, said: ‘Angela Rayner failed to answer basic questions on the viability of Labour’s house building target.
‘The truth is that Labour under Keir Starmer has had so many resets that the Housing Secretary can’t say this will even still be the target in a years’ time. Without a plan for migration the government doesn’t know what housing will be needed where, how and when.
‘Labour’s failure to set out a commitment on migration means strain on public services, less available housing, and the OBR already said Labour won’t meet their target. This looks set to be yet another Labour broken promise.’
