Jenrick set to abandon planning shake-up

Ministers are planning to abandon “the biggest shake-up in planning for 70 years” following a backbench backlash. Reforms designed to help ministers hit a target of 300,000 new homes annually by the middle of the decade will be watered down. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick is expected to announce a more limited set of changes after Conservative MPs blamed the planning overhaul for their party’s shock defeat by the Liberal Democrats at the Chesham and Amersham by-election in June. The government had intended to rip up the planning application process and replace it with a zonal system, stripping homeowners of their rights to object to new houses. It had proposed that councils would also be given mandatory housebuilding targets. The Times (£) To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews