Where Rachel Reeves is about to give Nimbys the biggest shock

Rachel Reeves used her first major speech as Chancellor to send a clear message to Britain’s Nimbys: start quaking in your boots.

Planning reform was the central pillar of Labour’s plan for economic growth during the party’s election campaign and the new Chancellor has wasted no time in laying the groundwork for the Government’s aim to build 1.5m homes over the next five years.

On Monday, Ms Reeves said Labour will consult on a new growth-focused approach to the planning system before the end of July, to reform the National Planning Policy Framework.

This will include restoring mandatory housing targets which Michael Gove, the former housing secretary, heavily watered down after bowing to a rebellion from backbench Tory MPs, led by Theresa Villiers.

Ms Reeves made it clear that she is gearing up for a brawl. 

“The question is not whether we want growth, but how strong is our resolve – how prepared are we to make hard choices and face down the vested interests; how willing, even, to risk short-term political pain to fix Britain’s foundations,” she said.

“I know that there will be opposition to this. I’m not naïve to that.”

Or in other words, “she has declared her willingness to fight battles with Nimbys where necessary,” says John Myers, founder of the Yimby Alliance campaign group.

At a time when the public finances are crippled, planning reform offers a route to growth that is effectively free. Regulatory reform does not require billions of pounds in investment or tax rises to pay for it. The only cost to Labour will be political capital – something Ms Reeves has a lot of right now.

“It’s clearly part of what they’ve been elected to do and they have got a big majority. So in principle they are in a better position to see off these challenges than any government probably since before the Second World War,” says Paul Cheshire, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics and a former government adviser.

London’s commuter belt and the South East will be home to the biggest fights – and that is where local Nimbys are in for the biggest shocks.

Under the existing system, housing delivery in local authorities is measured against their local targets. If local authorities are delivering 85pc to 95pc of their target, they effectively need to increase their target by 5pc over the five years ahead. If they are delivering less than 85pc, the increase in their target is 20pc.

This system of penalties became toothless when the targets became advisory, but should have new weight now that the targets will become mandatory again. 

“They do have some reasonably forceful sticks that they have devised to enforce those targets. It should, over time, mean that it becomes more and more difficult for local authorities to not meet their targets,” says Mr Cheshire.

Labour plans to force local authorities that are not meeting their targets to accept proposals for development. It could also go further and increase the housing delivery test penalties or cut the threshold at which they are imposed, says Simon Coop, senior director at Lichfield planning consultants. 

“Those that have persistently under-performed might face additional action.”

Nearly a third of local authorities will face some kind of sanction when the targets become mandatory again because they have been consistently under-delivering, says Mr Coop.

“The expectation is that they will be expected to rapidly and significantly boost their output.”

The worst performers are heavily concentrated in the South East.

Of the 295 local authorities in England, 76 delivered less than 85pc of their housing targets, meaning they will be expected to ramp up their targets significantly.

The vast majority of these local authorities that have been falling most short are in the southern commuter belt. Of the 76, 56 were in the South, with 25 in the South East and 14 in the East of England alone.

In Conservative-held Epping Forest, in 2022, the local authority had delivered just 30pc of the homes in its target plan. In Southend-on-Sea, Hastings, and Worthing – all of which flipped from the Tories to Labour – the authorities had delivered 31pc, 32pc and 33pc respectively.

Performance is worst in the South East because this is where housing is most unaffordable and where it is hardest to find land, says Mr Cheshire. It is also where the largest number of local authorities have ditched their plans altogether.

Many of the worst performers also have land in the green belt – on which they will likely come under new pressure to build.

Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, is about to write to local authorities to make it clear that they will need to deliver their local plans and review their green belt boundaries to make land on disused “grey belt” sites (such as car parks) available for development, Ms Reeves said.

“I think we’re going to see some pressure to build on green belt land where authorities haven’t been meeting their targets or aren’t going to meet their targets,” says Mr Myers.

Ms Rayner will also start making greater use of ministerial powers to make direct interventions in planning decisions and “will not hesitate” to review applications that are in national or regional interests, said Ms Reeves. 

Other policies include providing a further 300 planning offers across the country, an immediate end to the effective ban on new onshore wind farms in England and new priority to energy projects in planning decisions.

Labour’s political capital to drive planning reform has been further boosted by the landslide local elections in May, in which it won 1,158 seats across the 107 council elections in England. This was more than double the Liberal Democrats, who were in second place with 522 seats.

“Councils stand ready to help the Government achieve our shared ambitions to boost inclusive economic growth and housebuilding. National growth can only be achieved if every local economy is firing on all cylinders,” says Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association.

But the fight could prove more heated than Ms Reeves has reckoned with. Telegraph analysis shows that 25 of the 76 local authorities that have been underperforming most on their housing targets are in constituencies that have just swung to Labour – new supporters the party may be wary of alienating. These include Stevenage, Adur and Watford.

For now, Reeves seems wholly unphased. 

“Be in no doubt – we are going to get Britain building again,” she said. “And there is no time to waste.”