Details of the much-anticipated “planning reset” promised by the government will be delayed until next month.
Levelling up secretary Simon Clarke was due to give a speech next week, in which he was expected to provide more details, including plans to strip out some environmental regulations and scrap affordable housing requirements for smaller schemes.
However, the speech has now been pushed back until next month, ensuring it follows the announcement of chancellor’s debt-cutting plan, now expected on 31 October.
It is understood the policies, part of a programme of pro-growth, supply-side reforms originally dubbed “Operation Rolling Thunder”, have been mired by disagreements over details.
Business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has also had his announcement pushed back, after Number 10 dismissed his proposals as “half-baked”.
It is understood Downing Street wants to take more time to get the details right of what are sure to be contentious policies. The prime minister is understood to be aware she might not have sufficient backing within her party to push legislation through.
One of the proposals most likely to raise objections is the plan to lift the affordable housing threshold from 10 flats, or 1,000 sq m, to 40 or 50 flats. The plan was originally consulted on by the government in 2020 but dropped last year after the Local Government Association concluded it would result in 30,000 fewer affordable homes being built over five years.
Rapleys’ head of residential, Angus Irvine, said raising the threshold was “very sensible”, despite the previous “outcry”.
“It comes down to a very simple point: 30% of nothing is nothing. If a development doesn’t go ahead because we don’t have enough affordable housing planned, then that means absolutely no housing goes ahead.”
He added that “decisions on provisions for affordable housing need to be more commercial and flexible”.
Taylor Wessing partner Emma Tait was less supportive. “Increasing the threshold for affordable housing will be contentious. It’s not clear how this proposal will deliver the types of homes families actually need, where they need them. It takes away delivery of affordable housing with one hand, without giving back with the other.”
Also expected in Clarke’s menu of reforms is a reduction in environmental regulations.
While it is believed he will take aim at biodiversity net gain, MEES and nutrient and water neutrality policies, the bulk of the climate change-focused policies will remain.
A three-month review of the government’s climate-focused policies is being conducted by Conservative MP and former energy minister Chris Skidmore. His report, which will be released at the end of the year, “aims to identify new ways to deliver the legally binding target by 2050 in a way that is pro-business and pro-growth”, according to the brief given by the prime minister. Aspects that are deemed to be “anti-growth” will be ditched in favour of pro-growth alternatives.
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