Angela Rayner announces mandatory housing targets of over 370,000 a year

Angela Rayner has announced her plans to bring mandatory housing targets of over 370,000 a year as she claims the UK is facing the "most acute housing crisis in living memory".

In a speech in the Commons, she outlined Labour's commitment to meet housing targets by forcing councils to allow more homebuilding projects or else face having their green belt land targeted for development.

She said all councils should now be focused on "how to deliver new homes, not whether to" as she aims to make gaining planning permission for new projects easier around the country.

New mandatory housing targets will be over 370,000 per year

Angela Rayner has announced new mandatory housing targets will be over 370,000 per year and also a new method of calculating the number of new homes.

In her speech in Parliament, she said: “For the first time we will make local housing targets mandatory, requiring local authorities to use the same method to work out how many homes to build. But that alone is insufficient to meet our ambition, so we’re also changing the standard method used to calculate housing need so it better reflects the urgency of supply for local areas.

“Rather than relying on outdated data, this new method will require local authorities to plan for homes proportionate to the size of existing communities, and it will incorporate an uplift where house prices are most out of step with local incomes.

“The collective total of these local targets will therefore rise from some 300,000 a year to just over 370,000 a year.”

Green Belt could be targeted for development

Councils were also warned in Ms Rayner's speech that if they cannot meet their housing targets then green belt land could be targeted for housing development.

She said councils should focus on building on brownfield sites and then "grey belt" land whilst reiterating the Government's "five golden rules" for building on the grey belt with 50% of new homes being affordable.

She said Labour would work closely with councils to decide what kind of homes and where in order to meet local demand.

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper questioned Ms Rayner: “What will happen to councils that are working on a new development plan? Will they have to start again, using the new terms? Will the government accept the Lib Dem target for 150,000 new social homes every year?”

Ms Rayner said the answer "will depend where they are up to” in their plans but encouraged all MPs to get their councils to adapt plans.

Kemi Badenoch claims Labour are going to build 1.5m 'ugly houses'

Kemi Badenoch, Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, claimed Labour will build "1.5 million ugly houses".

She said Labour's new planning reforms will remove the word "beautiful" from the National Planning Policy Framework, as she said: “Why on earth would they take out something which means so much to local communities?

"People deserve to live in beautiful homes and the fact that the Labour Party doesn’t care about that shows exactly how they are going to develop their policies.”

Ms Badenoch also claimed local councils are "afraid" they will be forced to "sacrifice their own green spaces" whilst urban areas will not have to take such measures, after it was announced housebuilding targets for London would drop from 100,000 to 80,000.

'We have a housing crisis and we all must play our part'

Responding to the criticism that Labour are applying too much pressure from local councils, Ms Rayner said: “To this I say we have a housing crisis and a mandate for real change, and we all must play our part.

“Second, that some areas might appear to get a surprising target – well, no method is perfect and the old one produced all sorts of odd outcomes."

She claimed that Labour's policy, when compared to the Conservatives, would offer "extra stability for local authorities".

Ms Rayner added: “Third, that we are lowering our ambition for London. I’m clear we’re doing no such thing. That London had a nominal target of almost 100,000-homes-a-year based on an arbitrary uplift was absolute nonsense. The adoption of the London plan has a target of around 52,000 and delivery in London last year was around 35,000.

“The target we’re now setting for London – roughly 80,000 – is still a huge ask but I know it’s one that the mayor is determined to rise to and I met with him last week about this.

“Fourth, some will say a total of 370,000 is not enough. To this I say ambition is critical but we also need to be realistic.”