Backlash from councils over Angela Rayner’s housing targets

Councils are responsible for granting planning permission for new homes – but they mostly rely on the private sector to build the properties, something many local authorities said the government’s new targets did not take into account.

Neil Jefferson, the chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, told the BBC the planning changes were “very positive”.

But he said ministers needed to “do more to support prospective buyers”, give greater access to “suitable” mortgages, and ensure that local authority planning departments “have sufficient capacity to process applications”.

Labour has warned it is willing to overrule local councils’ objections to achieve its aim of delivering 1.5m homes by 2029, underlining the importance it places on housebuilding for economic growth.

Many local authorities that took part in the consultation supported the principle of building more homes and a small number were in favour of the specific plans put forward by the government.

In Oxford, the city council hopes the ambitious new targets will lead to the extra housing that councillors say the area needs.

The planned changes would see Oxford having to build an additional 24,000 homes.

Louise Upton, the local cabinet member for planning, said the council could accommodate 10,000 of those, and that it hoped the new rules would make it more likely that surrounding councils would take on the other 14,000 and allow the city to expand.

“When you are a tightly constrained city like ours is, actually bursting at the seams, you need your surrounding districts to collaborate with you to get the housing that you need,” she said.

“So I think the government’s plan for these new homes is ambitious, but it is achievable. It has to be achievable.”