Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Government is preparing to hand regional mayors sweeping new powers to intervene in major planning decisions, allowing them to override local councils on developments involving hundreds of homes, large commercial schemes and high-rise buildings.
Under the plans, elected mayors across England will receive new “call-in” powers enabling them to take control of certain major planning applications that would otherwise be determined locally.
The measures will apply to developments involving more than 150 homes, commercial schemes exceeding 15,000 square metres and buildings more than 30 metres tall.
Mayors covering Greater Manchester, Liverpool, the West Midlands, West of England, North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, Greater Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the East Midlands and Tees Valley are among those set to receive the powers.
The system is modelled partly on powers already exercised by the Mayor of London, who can intervene in strategically important planning applications and, in certain circumstances, take over responsibility for determining them.
But the prospect of local planning decisions being taken out of the hands of councils has prompted concerns over exactly where this leaves residents who have gone through the democratic planning process, submitted objections and persuaded their locally elected representatives that a development should not proceed.
The Government argues that the reforms are necessary to accelerate housebuilding and regeneration, with Labour still pursuing its ambition of delivering 1.5 million homes in England.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook described mayoral intervention as an essential part of the powers needed to deliver new homes and regeneration.
Burnham has also defended the principle, arguing that intervention can work in both directions. He said there could be occasions when local authorities themselves put forward proposals which have an unacceptable impact on communities, as well as cases where mayoral intervention could challenge councils blocking development.
However, critics will inevitably ask whether this really amounts to “bringing power home”, as Burnham has repeatedly promised, if decisions made by councillors elected specifically to represent individual communities can ultimately be overturned from above.
There is a fundamental democratic question here which cannot simply be dismissed as “Nimbyism”.
Residents may oppose a development for all manner of legitimate reasons, including pressure on schools, GP surgeries and roads, flooding risks, loss of countryside, traffic congestion or the scale and character of a proposed development.
People who participate in consultations, attend planning meetings, write to councillors and organise campaigns have every right to expect those representations to matter.
Britain undoubtedly needs more homes, but building them cannot become an excuse for bulldozing over local democracy.
The Government says local authorities will continue to determine the vast majority of planning applications and mayoral decisions will still have to comply with planning rules, local plans and national policy. Ministers would also retain powers to intervene.
Mayors are additionally expected to receive powers to provide “up-front permission” in designated circumstances, as well as greater influence over how Homes England funding is deployed within their regions.
A consultation setting out further details of how the new arrangements will operate is expected next week.
The Conservatives have questioned the transfer of power away from councils.
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly accused the Government of stripping councils of their ability to make decisions affecting their own communities, while Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Gideon Amos argued that taking powers from councils ultimately means taking them from local people.
Reform UK has described the proposals as “centralisation in disguise”, while the Greens have also criticised the approach.
There is an irony at the centre of Burnham’s latest devolution drive.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly talked about transferring power away from Westminster and bringing decision-making closer to communities. Yet when those communities, through their elected councillors, reach a decision the Government dislikes, another politician could now be given the ability to step in.
Devolution should mean more than moving power from one politician to another.
If Burnham genuinely wants to bring power closer to the people, then the people themselves must remain at the heart of decisions about what gets built in their communities.
Homes need to be built. Infrastructure needs to be improved. Britain’s cumbersome planning system undoubtedly needs reform.
But democracy can be inconvenient. That is rather the point.
Residents cannot simply be listened to when they agree with the Government’s plans and brushed aside when they do not. Local people deserve a meaningful voice in the future of the places in which they live, and no government should be allowed to bulldoze over that principle in pursuit of a housing target.
