Michael Gove will pledge to intervene if there are delays to housebuilding as a result of poor performance by councils – despite critics pointing out the government recently scrapped its own targets.
The levelling up secretary is expected to announce he will “call out” council planning departments that “drag their feet” when it comes to processing housing applications.
Mr Gove will set out his stall in a speech in central London on Tuesday, where he is also expected to announce a series of measures to boost planning performance across the system.
A source at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said it had been “clear that the government is on the side of the builders and not the blockers” and that councils “must play their part and deliver the homes this country needs, without concreting over the countryside”.
“The housing secretary has already told councils that they need to step up, and we are providing a lot of support to help them do so – so those that continue to drag their feet can expect to face government intervention,” they added.
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But Labour criticised the expected announcement as “truly through the looking glass” as it pointed out Mr Gove had watered down the government’s own target to build 300,000 homes every year following an angry backlash from Tory backbenchers.
Official statistics from DLUHC show applications for planning permission for July to September 2023 were down 12% from the same quarter the previous year, while the number of applications that were decided were down 13% from the same period last year.
The number of approvals granted was also down 14% on last year.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Despite all this tough talk, he [Mr Gove] and Rishi Sunak have stripped away every measure that would get shovels in the ground and houses built to appease their backbenchers.
“The Conservative government has sent housebuilding into crisis, with rock-bottom rates of planning permission decisions, spiking interest rates and house building set to plummet.
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“The devastating impact of this government’s reckless decision to abolish local housing targets will have real consequences for housebuilding rates across England, threatening to lock a generation out of getting a secure home of their own.”
Mr Gove was criticised after a Commons vote on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill had to be dropped last year after 60 Conservatives signed an amendment calling for the mandatory target to be scrapped.
Rishi Sunak then chose to make the target advisory instead.
It has led to some senior Conservatives warning that the Tories risked switching off younger voters if they did not commit to more housebuilding.
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Last month, former housing minister Sir Brandon Lewis warned his party faced the “real risk” of losing a generation of voters over the issue.
Speaking to the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Sir Brandon – one of the 16 housing ministers who have been appointed since the Conservatives took power in 2010 – questioned why a young person would vote for his party, adding: “What is the economic offer?”
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Mr Gove announced plans to ease developments on brownfield sites over the summer – but it is not clear if this will get the government to meet another target of building a million homes between 2019 and the next election.
The announcement came just weeks after parliament’s Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee said that while the government was on track to deliver one million new homes over the course of the current parliament, it was not forecast to deliver 300,000 net new homes per year by the mid-2020s – a target in the Tory 2019 election manifesto.
Mr Gove’s department said ministers were “continuing to deliver” on the target of building one million homes over this parliament from 2019 and January 2025.
It pointed to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act, which it said would speed up the planning system, hold developers to account, cut bureaucracy and encourage more councils to put local plans in place.