Khan slams planning reform as step backwards
Sadiq Khan has written to housing secretary Robert Jenrick slamming the proposed planning reform as a step backwards that will prevent development and weaken democracy.
The London mayor also called on the government to address the 300,000 consented homes that have not been completed and said imminent changes to the current system should be dropped.
These include fast-tracking housing developments, raising the threshold for affordable housing and revising local housing targets. (See Four changes to planning, ahead of full reform.)
Sadiq Khan has written to housing secretary Robert Jenrick slamming the proposed planning reform as a step backwards that will prevent development and weaken democracy.
The London mayor also called on the government to address the 300,000 consented homes that have not been completed and said imminent changes to the current system should be dropped.
These include fast-tracking housing developments, raising the threshold for affordable housing and revising local housing targets. (See Four changes to planning, ahead of full reform.)
In a letter accompanying his formal response to the consultation, Khan wrote: “I believe these proposals will be a retrograde step, risk alienating communities and actually make it less likely London builds the homes it needs.
“Centralising the planning system with targets driven from Whitehall is a backward step and flies in the face of the government’s commitment to devolution. The proposals represent a serious weakening of local democracy, and undermine the almost universally acknowledged notion that local areas know what works best for them.”
He argued the “one size fits all” approach would be “a mistake” and called for greater recognition of “the unique challenges different areas face”.
The mayor said that the new affordable housing threshold of 50 homes could see housing delivery on small sites halted and added that the new First Homes tenure will not be affordable to Londoners.
Khan has asked for greater investment in skills and training and supply chain and a “significantly more sophisticated model” in setting housing need targets. He said the proposed methodology is flawed through doubling down on the affordability weighting and ignoring land supply.
He added: “The prime minister says he wants to build, build, build. The best way to do this is to provide certainty. Yet the proposed changes to the planning system will result in the opposite and stall development at the worst possible time.”
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