A Conservative think tank has urged the prime minister to match or exceed Labour’s plans for housebuilding and the planning system.
The Policy Exchange has issued a proposal for 14 bills, which it wants Rishi Sunak to include in the King’s Speech on 7 November. At the top of the list – titled “What do we want from the King’s Speech” – is a proposed Planning and Housing Bill.
The think tank wants the Conservatives to “regain the initiative on housing, with bold plans to speed up the planning process, abolish leasehold and place local consent at the heart of plans”.
In a report published today, the think tank said Britain needs to build 442,000 homes a year to clear the backlog.
It said it agrees with developers that the planning system is “the principal obstacle”, “constraining the quality and quantity of the UK’s housing supply and energy infrastructure”.
It added: “By having a planning system exclusively based on discretionary permission rather than strategic compliance, the existing system creates too many veto opportunities and hardens the conflict of interest between local residents, developers, and those who stand to benefit from new infrastructure and improved urban environment.”
The outline proposes a version of what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called “planning passports”, whereby planning permission in principle would be granted in existing residential areas to developments that conform to national guidance.
It also proposes a “presumption in favour of development within local authorities that do not have an up-to-date local plan”.
The Policy Exchange’s proposed bill would also require government departments to transfer land to Homes England, to be assembled for new housing development.
It also proposes putting local referendums in place for new energy infrastructure – with benefits for those communities that approve them – and abolishing leaseholds through a separate Leaseholder Enfranchisement Bill.
The proposals are almost identical to those proposed by Labour, which formed part of Sir Keir Starmer’s speech to conference last week.
However, while Starmer has called for the recruitment of an additional 300 planning officers, Policy Exchange wants to establish expedited planning resources officers. These would be “capable of being deployed across the country to give expert planning advice and unlock bottlenecks in complex
planning projects”. The think tank added that the EPROs should also have “a specific mandate to support infill development on brownfield sites”.
It also backed the prime minister’s plan to end the current nutrient neutrality rules.
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