Planning approvals slump to 12-year low despite Whitehall power grab, Lib Dems expose

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

Liberal Democrat Housing and Communities Spokesperson, Gideon Amos MP, confronted Angela Rayner at Housing Questions on Monday [2nd November] as data shows stripping councillors of planning powers has completely failed to unlock housebuilding.

Government reforms stripping locally elected councillors of their say on planning applications have failed to boost housing consents, with quarterly approvals collapsing to their lowest number of applications made since 2012 records began.

The figures dismantle the Government’s central argument that local democracy is the primary blocker to new development. Despite ministers overhauling the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), branded “unprecedentedly permissive” by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), and removing the final say from local councillors on schemes of 150 homes or more in May, total approvals dropped sharply in the subsequent quarter. The rate of applications approved remained flat at 88%, proving that bypassing local communities has generated zero uplift in deliverable housing.

The findings come as the Government quietly strips democratic oversight from minor applications, barring elected committees from overruling officers on smaller sites and handing sweeping development powers to regional mayors. Amos has also pointed out that ministers forget that planning committees often do the heavy lifting to make schemes work - frequently turning officers’ recommendations to refuse into approvals after hearing all sides.

Liberal Democrat Housing and Communities Spokesperson Gideon Amos MP challenged Housing Secretary Angela Rayner in the House of Commons on Monday, urging the Government to scrap top-down centralisation and instead fund a genuine council house revolution, but Rayner opted to deflect away from an answer. 

Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson Gideon Amos MP said:

“Taking decisions away from councillors is taking decisions away from communities. That was true when this legislation was introduced, and it is even clearer today.

“Labour keeps moving the goalposts on local government with top-down local government reorganisation, election cycles meddling, and concentrating power with mayors.

“We were the only party to vote against this Whitehall power grab at Second Reading because we believe in empowering local democracy, not riding roughshod over it. If Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham truly want to kickstart development, they must stop treating local people as their opponents and deliver the real funding needed: backing our £6 billion a year social housing drive rather than the meagre funding tweak announced at the Budget.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) planning application statistics for the quarter following the May reforms show quarterly residential permissions dropped to their lowest point since 2012, while the overall approval rate held steady at 88%.
2. At Second Reading of the government’s planning legislation, the Liberal Democrats were the only party, except some Reform Party MPs, to vote against the bill. The Conservatives abstained, and the Labour and Green Parties voted in favour.
3. The Liberal Democrats have called for a £6bn annual social housebuilding programme which, scaled up to Labour’s 10 year timeframe, equals £60bn in funding for social homes. In the recent Budget, the Government only increased funding for the Affordable Homes Programme from £39bn to £40.5bn.