Gove will call in London Plan over housing delivery

Michael Gove is to call in the London Plan, as the prime minister claims the UK’s housing crisis is the fault of London’s mayor. In a column in The Times, Rishi Sunak said Sadiq Khan had missed the capital’s housing target by 30,000 homes a year, which had created “problems further afield”. Levelling up secretary Gove asked Christopher Katkowski KC to lead a review of the London Plan before Christmas last year, in response to “consistent disappointing housing delivery in the capital”. Now the government intends to effectively call in the London Plan and rewrite its development policies. The comments come as the government publishes its review of the London Plan, which says: “The combined effect of the multiplicity of policies in the London Plan now works to frustrate rather than facilitate the delivery of new homes.” Writing in The Times, Sunak said: “[Khan] has had eight years to fix this crisis but has failed. “His own plan says that our capital city needs 66,000 new homes a year. Yet last year he delivered only 35,000. And this creates problems further afield: the failure to build up in the heart of the capital pushes developers outwards, putting pressure on the suburbs and countryside that we want to protect. “The government has been forced to step in,” he added. Sunak praised his own government’s track record for delivering homes, saying it was on track to deliver a million over the course of this parliament. The PM said changes due to be introduced by the government – including “a presumption in favour of brownfield development” in urban areas that fall below 95% of their housing targets and an extension to permitted development rights so that commercial buildings of any size can be converted into homes – would “put rocket boosters” under brownfield development. The government is proposing to apply the presumption in favour to the 20 most populous urban areas where development has “fallen below acceptable levels”. The London Plan Review indicates that if a brownfield presumption in London resulted an acceleration of decisions to a rate in line with the next four largest cities or returned residential applications to the pre-London Plan approval rate and the rates of net additions previously achieved from those approvals, there could be between 4,000 and 11,500 additional homes per year in the capital. Katkowski, lead reviewer of the London Plan, said: “I am delighted to see the idea which I together with my colleagues on the London Plan Review came up with of a planning policy presumption in favour of delivering new homes on brownfield sites being taken forward on a wider scale as part of a suggested change to the NPPF. The inspiration for the brownfield presumption came from the NPPF in the first place and so it is good to see the idea being brought back to its roots as an additional lever to encourage the delivery of new homes. I see this as a worthwhile and welcome change.” A consultation on the proposals will launch today and run until 26 March. The government said it “will look to implement these changes to national planning policy as soon as possible”. Sunak said: “We pledged to build the right homes in the right places – protecting our precious countryside and building more in urban areas where demand is highest. Today’s package is us delivering on that. “We are sticking to our plan and are on track to meet our commitment to deliver one million homes over the course of this parliament, and the changes announced today will deliver the right mix of homes across England.” Gove said: “Today marks another important step forward in our Long-Term Plan for Housing, taking a brownfield first approach to deliver thousands of new homes where people want to live and work, without concreting over the countryside. “Our new brownfield presumption will tackle under-delivery in our key towns and cities – where new homes are most needed to support jobs and drive growth.” Labour’s proposals, which include building new towns and freeing up parts of the green belt for development, were dismissed by the PM as “dangerous”. “Our long-term plan for housing is working,” Sunak wrote in The Times. “We are building the homes people want in the places where they are needed, while still protecting our precious green spaces. “The choice is to stick with our plan and let us finish the job, or risk going back to square one with the Labour Party’s dangerous ideas about tarmacking over the green belt. I think the answer is clear. Let’s stick to the plan – and build a brighter future for this country.” But Angela Rayner, deputy leader of Labour, said: “A threadbare announcement consisting of old, failed policies and minor tweaks to brownfield planning policy is not going to paper over Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove’s reckless decision to capitulate to anti-housebuilding Tory backbenchers. Labour has a plan to get Britain building again.” Photo by ADAM-VAUGHAN-EPA-EFE-Shutterstock