As part of a “pro-growth” package announced to support the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, ministers will be able to issue ‘holding directions’ to stop councils from refusing planning permission while they consider using ‘call-in’ powers, to decide whether housing developments should be approved.
Currently, ministers can only issue these holds when councils are set to approve applications.
The government said some councils were “dragging their feet” and had blocked nearly 900 major housing schemes in the last year alone.
Natural England will also be able to streamline its role so it can decide when to give local authorities advice – expected to allow the organisation to focus on “higher-priority” applications and nature recovery. The government said this would speed up approvals for new homes and infrastructure.
The government said Natural England was currently “wasting precious resources” because it is legally required to respond to all local authority queries regarding nature.
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It has also been proposed that builders receive a “helping hand” to stop planning permissions from timing out on housing projects tied up in the courts, which is expected to speed up and unlock stalled schemes.
Further, measures will be introduced to approve reservoirs quickly to provide opportunities for housebuilding after more than three decades without a new reservoir in the UK.
The government said these proposals would meet its plan to build one-and-a-half million homes, achieve clean power by 2030 and raise living standards if the bill is passed.
Steve Reed, Housing Secretary, said: “Britain’s potential has been shackled by governments unwilling to overhaul the stubborn planning system that has erected barriers to building at every turn. It is simply not true that nature has to lose for economic growth to succeed.
“Sluggish planning has real-world consequences. Every new house blocked deprives a family of a home. Every infrastructure project that gets delayed blocks someone from a much-needed job. This will now end.
“The changes we are making today will strengthen the seismic shift already underway through our landmark bill. We will ‘build, baby, build’, with 1.5 million new homes and communities that working people desperately want and need.”
Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, added: “The outdated planning system has been gummed up by burdensome bureaucracy and held to ransom by blockers for too long.
“Our pro-growth planning bill shows we are serious about cutting red tape to get Britain building again, backing the builders, not the blockers, to speed up projects and show investors that we are a country that gets spades in the ground and our economy growing.”
