Burnham to hand mayors power to overrule local councils’ planning decisions
Andy Burnham will give mayors across the UK new powers to overrule planning decisions made by local councils and to greenlight large-scale developments.
The prime minister will unveil proposals this week to give regional mayors in 13 areas including Manchester, Liverpool, and the West Midlands, powers to take over planning decisions as well as direct councils to refuse or take forward plans.
The regional mayors will also be able to grant permission for developers upfront to start building without needing to apply.
The new rules will apply to developments of more than 150 homes, commercial spaces over 15,000 square metres or any building 30 metres or taller.
The plans have been backed by 10 of the 14 devolved mayors which will hand them similar powers to London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who was given powers earlier this year to “call in” on planning decisions to build more affordable homes across the City.
The planning decisions must comply with planning rules, local area plans, and national policies.
Mayors will also get more of a say on how national housing funding from Homes England, the governments housing and regeneration agency, will be spent in their areas, they will be able to charge a levy on developments to fund major infrastructure.
A consultation is due to be published this week.
Housebuilders facing worse conditions since financial crisis
The government is just over a quarter of the way to its target of building 1.5m homes in England over the next five years, and housebuilders are facing the worst conditions since the financial crisis in 2008.
The chief executive of property portal Rightmove, Johan Svanstrom, said in July that new home developments are at “historically low levels due to continued softer build rates”.
The FTSE 250 property platform said growth in its new homes business was “subdued” due to a six per cent dip in new-build developments compared to a year ago.
Svanstrom said property developers are “seeing conditions among the most difficult experienced since the global financial crisis and, as a result, new developments coming to market are at their lowest in over a decade.”