Radical planning reform needed to hit 1.5m housebuilding target in England, Labour warned
Labour will miss its manifesto target of building 1.5m homes in England before the end of this parliament without more radical reform to the planning system, the thinktank the Centre for Cities has warned.Keir Starmer put tackling housing affordability at the heart of his pitch to voters, promising to “get Britain building again”.However, the thinktank says the actions the government has taken so far – including re-establishing local housing targets and boosting funding for social housing – do not go far enough.In a report, the Centre for Cities analyses housebuilding data stretching back to 1947, when the Town and Country Planning Act was introduced, laying the groundwork for the system in place today.
It argues that even if private sector building matched its strongest performance in that 80-year period, the government is still set to fall 388,000 homes short of its target.Andrew Carter, the chief executive of the Centre for Cities, called on the government to be “much more ambitious”, in pursuing its goal.“We’re in a productivity crisis.The UK’s big cities are the jobs and productivity engines of the economy but our planning system doesn’t allow – and has never allowed – them to build an adequate supply of homes for everyone that could work there,” he said.Buying a home has moved increasingly out of reach for younger workers in recent decades.
Official figures show the average house was worth 3,55 times average earnings in 1997, but that had rocketed to more than eight times by 2023,To tackle the issue, the Centre for Cities advocates a more drastic approach to planning reform than Labour has so far contemplated – including a form of “zoning”,This system, common in European economies, allows authorities to decide which areas are ripe for building,There is then a presumption that planning permission will be granted, as long as applications meet a series of rules about the quality of developments.
That contrasts with the existing approach, where individual planning applications are contested locally, in a process that can be time-consuming and inconsistent.“By removing the discretionary element of the planning system, the UK would bring its planning system in line with most developed economies, remove a big block on housebuilding and enable places to better respond to future rises in demand for homes,” Carter said.The report, written by the housing expert Anthony Breach, argues that planning restrictions, including the introduction of the green belts from 1955, have prevented sufficient homes from being built where they are needed.It suggests London is particularly at risk of falling short of the number of homes required, and calls on the government to overhaul the plans for housing in the capital.Other recommendations from the Centre for Cities include releasing some green belt land for development, including around railway stations, as well as a bigger role for the public sector in housebuilding.
Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotionLabour has suggested creating a new category of “grey belt” land, for areas that are currently designated as green belt but not of high environmental quality.The government has been consulting on changes to the national planning framework to bring some of these proposals into effect.It also intends to devolve more strategic planning powers to metro mayors.However, government insiders are clear that zoning is not under consideration – regarding it as too disruptive to implement.The former housing minister Robert Jenrick tried to introduce a zoning system during Boris Johnson’s premiership but the proposals were ditched after a backlash from Tory MPs and local councillors.
The housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, recently reaffirmed the government’s 1.5m homes target, calling it “essential” – but conceded that it would be “more difficult” to fulfil than Labour expected.The Centre for Cities analysis follows warnings from several local councils, including some controlled by Labour, that the local targets the government plans to impose are unachievable.In consultation responses obtained by the BBC, Labour-run Broxtowe council in Nottinghamshire said the targets were “very challenging, if not impossible to achieve”, while Labour-run South Tyneside called them “wholly unrealistic”.A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Despite the dire housebuilding inheritance we are trying to fix, we will deliver the 1.
5m homes our country desperately needs and get Britain building again.“To get there, the government has already outlined plans to streamline the planning system, restored mandatory housing targets, established a programme to unblock homes stuck in the planning process and set up a new body to deliver the next generation of new towns.“On top of this, our planning and infrastructure bill will go even further in overhauling the planning system to boost housebuilding and economic growth across the country.”
GM to write down value of China business by more than $5bn
General Motors told shareholders on Wednesday that it would write down the value of its China business by more than $5bn.The company’s board of directors determined that the non-cash charges were necessary “in light of the finalization of a new business forecast and certain restructuring actions” with the joint venture, according to a company filing.CEO Mary Barra has been transforming GM’s operations in China as the former profit engine slipped to a loss in the last year. Barra told investors in October that they would see improvements from this effort by the end of the year, saying there would be “a significant reduction in dealer inventory and modest improvements in sales and share”.The automaker lost about $350m in the region in the first three quarters of this year
Duolingo backer in £802m raid on London-listed training company
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Smartphones should carry health warning, Spanish government told
Smartphones sold in Spain should carry a label warning users about their potential health impacts, experts have told the Spanish government, in a report that calls for doctors to ask about screen time during checkups.As Spain pushes forward with a draft law to limit children’s exposure to technology, the 50-member committee of experts has also called for minors to have limited exposure to digital devices until they are 13 to mitigate what they see as a public health problem.The experts’ nearly 250-page report, seen by the newspaper El País, recommends that children under the age of three do not have any exposure to digital devices, while children up to six years old should be allowed to access them only on an exceptional basis.For children between six and 12, the use of so-called “dumb phones” – which do not have access to the internet and which are limited to calls – should be prioritised, as should offline activities such as sports.The report called on the government to consider adding a warning label to digital devices sold in Spain, informing consumers of the health risks that some have linked to social media and digital devices, as well as the possible impacts that access to inappropriate content could have on the development of children
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No player has been as impactful, as exciting or as deserving of the Heisman Trophy than Colorado’s two-way superstar. So why will he almost certainly be snubbed?The Heisman Trophy is college football’s supreme individual honor, an annual tribute to the best player in the game, and more often than not it’s the country’s top quarterback who takes the prize. But this could be the year Colorado’s Travis Hunter breaks with tradition.Hunter is college football’s mind-warping dual threat, a game-changing wide receiver and cornerback. It’s not uncommon for the nation’s best college football prospects to play offense and defense as high schoolers, especially if there aren’t enough bodies to fill out every position on the roster
College football’s playoff field has tripled. Turns out picking 12 teams is just as hard
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