Inner-city areas will be the focus of new housebuilding projects, Rishi Sunak has announced, in a move designed to signal sympathy with those struggling to get on the property ladder but avoid a backlash from Tory MPs.
The prime minister promised not to “concrete over the countryside”, before a speech by the housing secretary, Michael Gove, who will set out changes on Monday to help homeowners extend their properties and streamline the planning process.
A new “super squad” of planners and other experts will be established, tasked with unblocking major housing developments.
Amid concerns that a lack of housebuilding is holding back economic growth and making younger voters less likely to support the Conservatives, Sunak said he was confident the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge to build 1 million homes over the course of the parliament would be met.
Top of the priority list for development is a new urban quarter in Cambridge, with space for homes, art facilities, laboratories and green areas.
Sunak said progress had made been made but that “we need to keep going because we want more people to realise the dream of owning their own home”.
He added: “We won’t do that by concreting over the countryside – our plan is to build the right homes where there is the most need and where there is local support, in the heart of Britain’s great cities.
“Our reforms today will help make that a reality by regenerating disused brownfield land, streamlining the planning process and helping homeowners to renovate and extend their houses outwards and upwards.”
Stuart Baillie, the of planning at property firm Knight Frank, said the move was “unlikely to have meaningful impact on housing supply” and would only create hundreds of new homes instead of the thousands needed.
He added: “This policy will only paper over the cracks, instead of getting to the heart of the issue facing the UK’s overburdened and under-resourced planning system. In many instances, residential amenity would be compromised by a town centre location – particularly ground floor retail – meaning conversion or redevelopment would be limited to fringe and out-of-town areas.”
The announcement comes only two weeks after a cross-party committee ruled ministers were unlikely to meet the government’s pledge of building 300,000 new homes a year. That target was made advisory rather than mandatory by Sunak last year, in an attempt to see off a potential backbench rebellion.
Clive Betts, the chair of the levelling up, housing and communities select committee, said the prime minister’s decision was “already having a damaging impact on efforts to increase the building of new homes”.
On Monday, while Sunak is on a visit to the West Midlands, Gove will deliver a speech in London and promise to cut red tape. The changes will allow more shops and takeaways to be converted into houses, and are aimed at making it simpler for existing homes to be extended.
To unblock bottlenecks in the planning system, Gove will announce an intention to invest £24m in a planning skills delivery fund. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the housing secretary said the proposals would start with Cambridge before spurring the creation of new homes in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
Labour accused Gove and Sunak of exacerbating the housing crisis.
Lisa Nandy, the shadow housing secretary, said it had “gone from bad to worse on [the Conservatives’] watch” and that housebuilding was on course to hit its lowest rate since the second world war. She promised Labour would restore housing targets, change compulsory purchase rules and “take the tough choices to back the builders, not the blockers”.
Shaun Davies, the chair of the Local Government Association, said new homes were much needed but such places as shops, offices and barns were not always suitable for conversion.
“Further expanding permitted development rights risks creating poor quality residential environments that negatively impact people’s health and wellbeing, as well as a lack of affordable housing or suitable infrastructure,” he said.
