Parts of England will need to build 21 times more homes than they have been under Labour’s ‘bulldozer blitz’.
A breakdown of new targets has laid bare the scale of the demands being put on local authorities – with London and the South East hardest hit.
Kensington & Chelsea is being ordered to build 5,107 homes annually – even though it has only been averaging 236 in the past few years.
Richmond-upon-Thames has been generating 154 a year, but will now be obliged to hit a number that is 16 times higher, at 2,513.
Bromley must achieve 13 times more homes than the 229 it has been managing, while Portsmouth, Gosport and the New Forest have to see an eightfold rise.
Angela Rayner and Keir Starmer were accused of waging ‘war on rural England’ yesterday as they unveiled the biggest shake-up of planning rules for a generation.
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Angela Rayner and Keir Starmer were accused of waging ‘war on rural England’ yesterday as they unveiled the biggest shake-up of planning rules for a generation
Tories warned that the PM’s housebuilding bonanza will barely keep up with immigration – even if he hits his overall goal of 1.5million homes over the next five years.
The blueprint included new demands for hundreds more developments in the Home Counties, while the draft goals for the North published in July were revised down.
MPs and campaigners argued it paves the way for swathes of the Green Belt to be concreted over because it forces councils to re-classify thousands of acres into ‘Grey Belt’ sites for building on.
Other protections have also been diluted, with a vow to ‘safeguard the countryside from encroachment’ now dropped.
Councils that fail to submit detailed plans for achieving the steep targets, with some facing demands for a 2,000 per cent increase in building, could have developments imposed on them by Whitehall.
Two-thirds of councils have yet to submit fresh plans, creating fears of a flood of speculative planning applications by developers hoping their estates will be rammed through by officials eager to hit Labour’s new target of building at least 1.5million homes within this Parliament.
Local authorities have only three months to lodge fresh plans with the Government, even though they can take years to develop.
Sir Keir said he would prioritise ‘human beings wanting to have a house’ over the environment as he joined Ms Rayner on a visit to a building site in Cambridgeshire yesterday.
‘The starting point is local plans, and that’s really important for councils to develop the plan according to the target, taking into account local need and working with developers,’ the premier said.
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‘But are we going to push it through if those plans don’t work? Yes we absolutely are.
‘Are we going to push away the planning rules and make them clearer, as we have done today, get away the blockers that are stopping the houses being built? Yes, we are absolutely intent.
‘For years, we have had not enough houses being built. That means that individuals and families don’t have the security that they want.
‘We are determined to break through that, to do what’s necessary.
‘Of course we want to get the balance right with nature and the environment, but if it comes to a human being wanting to have a house for them and their family, that has to be the top priority.’
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