New towns will be given powers to overrule local planners in order to build new roads and rail links.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook told The i Paper new planning rules will “fast-track” the delivery of new towns and transport links connecting them with existing infrastructure.
New government-backed development corporations – similar to the The London Legacy Development Corporation used to build the Olympic Park in Stratford – will be given “stronger and clearer powers” to take on local planners and prevent infrastructure such as new roads and railway lines from being blocked.
Development corporations were created in the 1940s to deliver post-war housing and new towns, including Telford and Milton Keynes.
Pennycook said: “By giving development corporations stronger and clearer powers, we will ramp up the delivery of high-quality homes, beautiful public spaces and vital infrastructure, increasing housing supply and boosting economic growth”.
Ahead of outlining the planning changes in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill in Parliament tomorrow, Pennycook added the new development corporations will be “empowered to meet the country’s housing and infrastructure needs”.
Labour says that development corporations could be led by regional mayors and can be set up when “the risk or scale of a development is too great for the private sector”. The bodies would work alongside private developers to deliver housing and infrastructure.
Private housebuilders welcomed the announcement. Steve Turner, executive director of the Home Builders Federation, said it was “essential” to have “an effective central body with the necessary powers to push through the planning and delivery of new towns.”
He added that development corporations “are a proven delivery vehicle that can provide certainty and housing supply in the long term.”
Rhys Moore, executive director of public impact for the National Housing Federation – the trade body for housing associations – Rhys Moore, said: “We know there’s an ambition for 40 per cent of new towns to be affordable, and social housing must be at the heart of these plans.
“The Government is right to strengthen development corporations so that they have the powers necessary to ensure the development of large-scale new communities, including the provision of much-needed social and affordable housing, can proceed more rapidly and successfully by being backed up by adequate and timely infrastructure.”
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Labour hopes that strengthening powers for their new development corporations can help them hit their ambitious target of building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
However, the number of new homes given planning permission in England last year fell to its lowest level since 2014.
A development corporation was also used as part of the Thames Gateway regeneration project. In that case, an analysis conducted by lobbying firm Public First found that more than double the number of homes were given planning permission than would have been granted without the creation of the body.
Meanwhile, a revamp of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has made local housebuilding targets compulsory and created new “grey belt” zones within the green belt which can be prioritised for housebuilding.
Pennycook previously told The i Paper that development corporations will also have new powers to compulsorily purchase land which is currently privately owned for development if it is in the public interest.
Last week, Pennycook invoked powers to force a local authority to approve their housing plans in accordance with Labour’s changes to the NPPF.
After repeatedly rejecting its own local plan, South Tyneside Council was ordered to submit its housebuilding plan to the Government by 16 March. This includes a scheme to build 1,200 new homes on green belt land in Fellgate.
However, concerns remain about whether a skills shortage in the construction industry as well as funding for social housebuilding could hamper Labour’s plans, even with these legislative changes.
Pennycook said: “Our Planning and Infrastructure Bill will empower development corporations by equipping them with the planning and delivery tools necessary to co-ordinate and deliver well-designed, sustainable and economically successful places.”
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