Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her first major speech yesterday to vow a dramatic overhaul of the 'timid' planning system, aiming to build 1.5million new homes over the next five years.
Ministers claim they are likely to be areas such as old car parks, wastelands, quarries or other green spaces with 'little intrinsic beauty or character'. They are set to end the de facto ban on new onshore wind turbines, which was introduced by ex-PM David Cameron in 2015 through a tightening of planning rules.
Developing that space at a ‘gentle density' could deliver between one million and 1.5million homes, it has argued.It could account for 3 per cent of the protected area in Birmingham, 3.6 per cent in South & West Hampshire, 2.3 per cent in Bath and Bristol, and 3.2 per cent in London.