Thousands more houses could be built near transport hubs, including on green belt sites, as part of changes to government planning rules in England. Under the government's new National Planning Policy Framework, there will be default approval for homes being built around railway stations in a bid to increase housebuilding numbers. This is a key step towards fulfilling the government's pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029, reports infohub.kz.
According to the new rules, areas around stations that run at least four trains per hour into a large urban area will automatically get approval for housing development. However, with two years into a five-year parliament, the government is only about a quarter of the way to its target.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook confirmed to Sky News this morning that the "default yes" approach would apply to green belt land as well. He acknowledged that this may cause some concern, but stressed that there is not enough brownfield land to deliver the volumes of homes needed. "In exceptional circumstances, greenbelt land should be developed on. We've got a sequential approach for how we judge the lower quality land to come forward in the first instance," he said.
However, the plans risk a backlash from campaigners who want to see greenbelt areas protected. Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice said the changes undermine the government's devolution agenda. "Far from empowering local councils who actually know their communities, they strip power from the people who live there and hand it to Whitehall so ministers can ram through major housing developments while sidelining residents and ignoring the infrastructure that already can't cope," he said.
Shadow housing secretary James Cleverly accused the government of a "power grab", saying: "To try to fix their own mess, Labour are planning a power grab, seizing control from local communities and forcing them to accept development in the wrong areas because Labour won't build in the right areas. Labour's planning power grab is exposing our green belt and countryside to unauthorised Traveller sites, and ministers are turning a blind eye."
The new national planning policy framework also includes other changes: pubs will be protected from being turned into housing or offices unless they have been marketed for sale for at least a year; at least 40% of homes on bigger developments must be accessible; and there will be stronger support for AI growth zones and datacentres.