Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, has announced an ambitious plan to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2029, addressing the housing crisis that many of our clients face daily.
Rayner’s proposal includes reinstating mandatory local housing targets, which were previously diluted by the Conservatives in 2022. This change is crucial as it aims to make housing more affordable, particularly for those struggling with substandard living conditions. The reintroduction of these targets means that English councils will once again have to incorporate government-set housing targets into their long-term plans to allocate land.
The plan also includes reclassifying certain low-quality green belt land as “grey belt” to make it easier to build new homes. Rayner acknowledged that these changes “won’t be without controversy” but emphasised the need for bold action to tackle the housing affordability crisis. Predictably, the Conservatives have criticised these plans, arguing that they will disproportionately affect suburban areas by forcing them to accommodate more housing from urban Labour areas.
Housing Targets
The return to mandatory housing targets marks a significant reversal from Rishi Sunak’s government, which had downgraded them to advisory status following a backbench Tory rebellion in late 2022. Rayner criticised this move in the Commons, accusing the Conservatives of “caving in to anti-growth backbenchers” and prioritising “party before country”. She highlighted that new home starts were likely to fall below 200,000 this year, far short of the previous government’s 300,000 target.
Labour plans to recalibrate how these targets are calculated, eliminating a 35% “uplift” for the largest urban areas introduced by the Tories. This adjustment will see councils planning for approximately 370,000 homes annually, up from the current 305,000. While some urban areas will see their targets decrease, the overall goal is to ensure a more equitable distribution of housing development.
Impact on Urban and Suburban Areas
The recalibration of housing targets will see significant changes for cities like London and Birmingham. London’s annual quota is set to drop from just under 99,000 homes to around 80,000, while Birmingham’s target will fall from 7,174 to 4,974. Coventry will also see a reduction from 3,081 to 1,527 homes. Although some councils have previously criticised the uplift targets as unrealistic, Rayner insists that London’s revised figure remains a “huge ask”.
While these changes are aimed at creating a fairer system, they have drawn criticism from the opposition. Shadow Housing Secretary Kemi Badenoch warned that the new targets could lead to greater uncertainty and force suburban and rural areas to take on more housing from Labour-held inner-city areas.
The Grey Belt
One of the more contentious elements of the plan is the proposal to make it easier to build on certain parts of the green belt. The government has suggested that councils should review green belt boundaries if they cannot meet housing needs “through other means”. The new guidance encourages councils to reclassify previously developed land or land that contributes minimally to goals such as countryside protection and the preservation of historic towns, as “grey belt”.
The precise impact of this reclassification remains unclear, as it will depend on the decisions made by local authorities. However, development in grey belt areas will be governed by new “golden rules”, including requirements on the proportion of new homes that must be classified as affordable.
Reactions and Criticisms
Labour’s plan also includes scrapping the requirement for new homes to be “beautiful”, arguing that the term is too vague and inconsistently interpreted across different regions. This move has faced criticism from various quarters, including the Greens, who labelled the planning overhaul a “distraction from Labour’s failure to step up and fund the real answers to the housing crisis, including large-scale investment in truly affordable, sustainable council housing.”
