Housing secretary could raise housebuilding targets in reformed NPPF due tomorrow
Delivering social and affordable homes at scale is Angela Rayner’s “number one priority”, the housing secretary has said ahead of a major planning announcement this week.
Writing in The Guardian over the weekend, the Labour minister said investment in social and affordable housing was not only key to “ensure everyone has a secure roof over their head” but was also “a crucial step on the path to 1.5m homes”.
“That’s why we will take action to inject confidence and certainty into the social housing system, so that councils and private providers can get back to building,” she said.
Rayner claimed the Affordable Homes Programme, which had been expected to deliver up to 180,000 homes when it was launched by the previous government in 2020, was unlikely to reach even a quarter of that goal.
Her statement comes as the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government prepares to publish its reformed National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The most recent NPPF was published only last December by then-housing secretary Michael Gove but the new Labour government will introduce fresh reforms with the aim of “kickstarting the sector out of this slump”.
The new framework, expected to be announced to MPs tomorrow, will detail plans for the government’s “strategic approach” to green belt development, which will prioritise so-called grey-belt land for building and introduce “golden rules” for development.
The government has already announced it will re-introduce mandatory housing targets and, according to a report in The Times, the standard method used to determine these could be tweaked to increase targets by 50%.
Rayner is reportedly set to make changes to affordability assessments to factor in how many people might move into an area if housing there was cheaper.
The NPPF reforms are set to follow a major announcement from the Treasury, expected this afternoon, which will set out the results of its internal audit.
>> Read more: New government sets out plans for housing and infrastructure in first King’s Speech
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will tell MPs that the state of the country’s finances are worse than expected, with newspapers reporting over the weekend that a £20bn gap has been identified.
Former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt has accused Reeves of being “beyond disingenuous” in claiming surprise at the state of the finances, noting that the Office for Budget Responsibility publishes its own assessment twice a year.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies also identified a similar sized gap after the budget in March.
In an effort to avoid tax rises, Reeves is reportedly planning to scrap a series of major infrastructure schemes, including the New Hospitals Programme, the Stonehenge tunnel and other roads schemes.
According to The Times, she is also looking to sell off empty public buildings and reduce government spending on consultants.
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