Labour accused of ‘garden-grabbing’ and an ‘all-out assault’ on the inexperienced belt as ministers unveil extra planning modifications in determined bid to construct 1.5m new houses

Labour was today accused of launching an ‘all-out assault’ on the green belt and ‘garden-grabbing’ after the Government unveiled a slew of new planning changes.

Under what is claimed to be the most significant rewrite of planning rules in more than a decade, ministers said more homes will be built faster in every region.

The Government said its latest update to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) would make the planning system ‘clearer’ and ‘more predictable’.

It comes as ministers scramble to fulfil their pre-election pledge to build 1.5 million new homes across England within five years.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government promised the latest changes would bring ‘higher-density development’ and ‘simplified biodiversity rules’.

The proposed new changes to the NPPF, which sets out how planning rules should be applied in England, include default approvals for homes around rail stations and high-rise developments in towns and cities.

The Government is also seeking to make it easier for developers to build higher density housing on smaller sites and underused land.

But the Tories claimed Labour was now pursuing ‘garden-grabbing’ tactics – where new housing is built on existing residential gardens – and targeting green belt land due to a failure to build on brownfield sites.

Ministers were also accused of ‘eroding trust’ in the planning system by sidelining local concerns with ‘top-down’ housing targets.

Matthew Pennycook, the housing and planning minister, insisted Labour was ‘doubling-down’ on a ‘brownfield-first’ approach with its latest planning shake-up.

Under the new policy, railway stations will be classified as well-connected based on the number of train services available and the economic performance of the area.

Development within a 15-minute walk of the station will then be permissible, even if it is within the green belt, with the only requirement being a minimum density requirement of 50 dwellings per hectare.

Projects that support local businesses, improve town centres or boost shops, restaurants and leisure facilities will be given preferential treatment.

The measures follow previous changes to the NPPF that came into force in December, which included mandatory housing targets for councils and incentives to develop on lower-quality land in the green belt, which has been dubbed ‘grey belt’. 

In a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr Pennycook admitted ‘progress’ towards meeting Labour’s manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament had been ‘slow’.

He told MPs: ‘Progress towards that ambitious 1.5 million new homes target was always going to be slow in the early years of this Parliament.

‘After all, the Government inherited a housing market downturn exacerbated by the conscious and deliberate decisions of ministers in the previous Conservative government to make a series of anti-supply changes to national planning policy, including the abolition of mandatory housing targets.’

Conservative shadow housing minister Gareth Bacon labelled the Government’s housebuilding record ‘dreadful’, adding it would take seven years to meet Labour’s manifesto commitment.

‘This Labour Government’s last planning framework began pushing development onto rural areas, prioritising concreting over the green belt and green fields – rather than focusing on supporting building in urban areas where we need to build most,’ he told MPs.

‘It sounds as though the Government is going to double down on this with an all-out assault on the green belt.

‘In London under their abysmal mayor (Sir Sadiq Khan), for the last decade Labour have conspicuously failed to build the right amount of housing.

‘And now they are going to fail to build the right kind of housing in the right places in the rest of England.

‘Clearly preferring to target building in rural areas, while not building in the cities and urban areas where demand is highest and much of the necessary infrastructure already exists.’

Mr Bacon added: ‘This Labour Government is intent on ignoring the voices of local people up and down the country while imposing top-down housing targets, disproportionately in rural areas.

‘The reality that Labour is prioritising building on rural areas while claiming it is grey belt land. They are now returning to something the previous Labour government did, namely garden-grabbing.’

Mr Pennycook told Mr Bacon he had ‘completely misunderstood one of the primary thrusts of the changes we are making, which is to double down on a brownfield-first approach’.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said in a statement: ‘Right now we see a planning system that still isn’t working well enough.

‘A system saying ‘no’ more often than it says ‘yes’ and that favours obstructing instead of building.

‘It has real-world consequences for those aspiring to own a home of their own and those hoping to escape so-called temporary accommodation.

‘We owe it to the people of this country to do everything within our power to build the homes they deserve.

‘We’ve already laid the groundwork to get Britain building but our planning overhaul was only the first step to fix the housing crisis we face.

‘And today I’m going further than ever before to hit 1.5 million homes and place the key to homeownership into the hands of thousands more hard-working people and families.’

Sir James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, said: ‘Labour talk a big game on housebuilding but have completely failed to deliver.

‘In their first year in office they built fewer homes than the Conservative Government delivered during a global pandemic.

‘We all want to see a faster, better planning system but this Labour Government is still refusing to touch brownfield land, and is instead imposing development on rural areas.

‘This risks bulldozing through communities, overriding local democracy and concreting over the countryside.

‘Rather than holding their urban mayors to account they are returning to John Prescott’s failed regime of garden-grabbing, with quiet suburban neighbourhoods facing the prospect of ugly apartment blocks being erected on their green spaces against their wishes.

‘In desperation at their own failure to build, Labour are now abandoning any pretense of caring about communities.’