Rishi Sunak caves in to Tory housebuilding rebels: Councils get power to ... trends now
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Rishi Sunak has bowed to Tory rebels opposed to housebuilding in leafy suburbs and rural areas by allowing them to overrule targets designed to help solve the UK's homes crisis.
Michael Gove tonight announced that ministers have watered down plans to hand down targets for new homes that would make them guidance rather than mandatory figures.
Councils will be given the power to overrule the figures if the number or density of homes in a given development would 'significantly change the character' of the area.
In a letter to MPs the Communities Secretary Michael Gove said the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill would be amended to abolish mandatory housebuilding targets.
It comes after 60 Tory backbenchers from affluent areas threatened to rebel to soften its impact.
Led by former minister Theresa Villiers they are supporting a series of amendments to the proposed planning legislation, as they bid to tighten rules on building homes in the countryside and suburbs.
Chipping Barnet MP Ms Villiers said: 'These reforms will rebalance the planning system and give local communities a greater say over what is built in their neighbourhood.'
But the move is likely to infuriate Tories including former ministers Sajid Javid and Simon Clarke, who have warned that failure to build more homes that young people can afford is socially damaging and politically suicidal.
Chipping Barnet MP Ms Villiers said: 'These reforms will rebalance the planning system and give local communities a greater say over what is built in their neighbourhood.'
Michael Gove, the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary, is in talks with disgruntled Tory MPs over the Government's flagship Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill
The 2019 Tory manifesto co-author Robert Colville said it would 'enshrine 'nimbyism' as the governing principle of
