English councils must deliver on an ‘ambitious’ combined target of 370,000 new homes a year, the Government has confirmed.
It said reform was ‘desperately needed’ to meet its goal for 1.5 million homes to be built over this Parliament.
Under the updated national planning policy framework (NPPF), areas with the least affordable homes and the ‘greatest potential for growth’ will see housebuilding targets increase.
The ‘growth-focused’ NPPF now says that to meet targets, councils should review greenbelt boundaries, identifying and prioritising lower quality ‘grey belt’ land.
But the Government said brownfield land should be the 'first port of call' for development, and the 'the default answer when asked to build on brownfield should always be "yes"'.
It has also introduced a new requirement that where local plans based on old targets are still in place from July 2026, councils will need to provide for an extra year’s supply of homes in their pipeline – six years instead of five.
Housing secretary Angela Rayner said: ‘Today’s landmark overhaul will sweep away last year’s damaging changes and shake-up a broken planning system which caves into the blockers and obstructs the builders.
‘We must all do our bit and we must all do more. We expect every local area to adopt a plan to meet their housing need.’
