Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up has this week outlined proposals to speed up planning and focus housing developments on urban areas. The plans include extending permitted development rights for retail buildings, betting shops and agricultural buildings to be converted into housing; consulting on making it easier for homeowners to extend their homes and setting up a ‘super squad’ of experts to go into local areas to get major projects done bypassing local democratic decision making. Mr Gove also announced that the Government will deliver 300,000 new homes a year, despite having relaxed previous targets which have led to many Councils abandoning their own housing targets and a slow down in the supply of new homes.

Oldham Council recently announced its own plans for redevelopment of Oldham Town Centre to provide approximately 2,000 new homes, an urban park and new jobs in partnership with Muse. This is a key part of Oldham’s strategy to deliver homes and save greenbelt across the borough.

Councillor Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council said “Oldham is way ahead of the Tory Government. Our partnership with Muse is the biggest part of the jigsaw to remake Oldham Town Centre with homes, a new home for the Coliseum, new green spaces, a revamped Spindles and a new home for Tommyfield Market. We are already making the best possible use of our brownfield sites across the borough. In Oldham our democratically elected Council is leading the transformation, consulting residents and listening to their views. We don’t need more experts from Whitehall. What we need are resources we can use locally to beef up our Planning Department and get on with creating the homes and jobs Oldham needs. It isn’t clear if the Planning Skills Delivery Fund will actually help us employ more planners. Its ironic that Mr Gove now imposes experts on local communities having derided them in the past.”

Stuart Baillie, the head of planning at property firm Knight Frank, said the move was “unlikely to have meaningful impact on housing supply” and would only create hundreds of new homes instead of the thousands needed.

He added: “This policy will only paper over the cracks, instead of getting to the heart of the issue facing the UK’s overburdened and under-resourced planning system. In many instances, residential amenity would be compromised by a town centre location – particularly ground floor retail – meaning conversion or redevelopment would be limited to fringe and out-of-town areas.”

Councillor Elaine Taylor, Cabinet Member for Housing and Licensing added “Extending Permitted Development Rights meaning local people and the Council have little say on standards and design of converted buildings is no substitute for funding the homes for social rent Oldham so desperately needs. Developers already use agricultural development rights to get round restrictions on building in the greenbelt and these new plans will just add to this pressure. Taken together, the Tory changes to the Planning system make it much more difficult for local people to influence what their neighbourhoods are like. I’ve already had to tell residents that recent changes mean the Council can’t stop extensions that block windows and remove privacy from their gardens. And many developments using permitted development rights are shoddy, don’t have outside space for families and fall far below the decent homes standard. We need subsidy for social and truly affordable homes not more rabbit hutches in places unsuitable for homes.”