The Government are committed to building 1.5 million homes in England this Parliament. This will require house building at levels not seen in over 50 years, but it is essential to restore the dream of home ownership and ensure every family can access a safe, decent, and affordable home.
Meeting this commitment requires a combination of ambition and resolve: ambition in the scale of our reforms, and resolve to see them through. We have already taken significant action—including introducing mandatory and higher housing targets, modernising green belt policy, taking the Planning and Infrastructure Bill through its final phases, and accelerating growth supporting infrastructure. It is now time to press ahead with our next phase of reform—going further on fixing the foundations, transforming the housing market and building homes for those who need them most.
Over the coming weeks, I will set out the actions that comprise this next phase of reform. That starts today, with three pro-growth planning reforms designed to accelerate house building: unleashing development around rail stations, intervening to support growth, and streamlining the statutory consultee system.
Unleashing development around rail stations
First, development of the right quality and density around train stations enables working families to benefit from greater opportunities to live in close proximity to transport hubs—saving them time and money—alongside unlocking more opportunities for jobs, education, and sustainable growth.
That is why—as part of a revised, more rules-based national planning policy framework—the Government intends to provide a “default yes” to suitable planning applications for development within a reasonable walking distance of well-connected stations. This will give greater certainty for house builders, allow development to be approved more quickly, and unlock tens of thousands of new homes during this Parliament.
This new policy will form part of the consultation on a revised NPPF by the end of the year, and will apply to land around both train and tram stations with a sufficient frequency of services. Recognising the significant benefits for jobs and growth that can be unlocked by building around train stations, these rules will extend to land within the green belt—continuing efforts to ensure that a policy designed in the middle of the last century is updated to work today. As with other green-belt land, the golden rules would apply, ensuring higher levels of affordable housing, local infrastructure and green space are provided to local communities.
The new approach will apply equally across all local authorities, so that these benefits are realised across the country.
Intervening to support growth