Tories to unveil revolution in planning rules next week to turbo-charge house building in Britain
CABINET ministers will unveil a revolution in planning rules next week to turbo-charge house building in Britain.
The red tape will be relaxed so homes can be made bigger and new ones can be built on existing commercial sites without planning permission.
House building on green belts will also be allowed where there is already some development — such as a train station.
The jumbo package has been drawn up by Chancellor Sajid Javid and Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.
They will begin to unveil it at the Tories’ annual conference in Manchester, which starts tomorrow.
Under the new rules, most house owners can add two more storeys to their buildings without having to make a planning application.
The ministers will argue that Britain’s cities have one of the lowest average heights of housing in the Western world, and that building upwards will create a huge amount of living space immediately.
The second big change means builders will no longer need permission to demolish a commercial property and replace it with homes.
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Many of the new policies were proposed by Mr Javid when he was Communities Secretary but blocked by the then PM Theresa May, who feared upsetting Nimbys. A senior government source said: “Sajid and Robert are taking the gloves off. We’re going to inject real dynamism into house building.
“Theresa kept the handbrake on — Boris is letting them take it off.”
The package is designed to deliver on the long-standing target of 300,000 new homes a year to solve the nation’s housing shortage.
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