Michael Gove is resisting efforts from Tory planning rebels to abolish all housing targets but the levelling up department is offering other far-reaching concessions including restrictions on holiday lets such as Airbnb.
A government source said some progress had been made in talks with at least 60 MPs who had signed an amendment that would scrap mandatory local housing targets and make them advisory only.
The bill is unlikely to return to parliament next week as negotiations continue with rebels. Gove is unlikely to agree to scrap the target but has offered potential deals on other amendments to the levelling up bill submitted by many of the same rebel Tories.
The levelling up secretary is considering forcing landlords to submit a “change of use” planning application to the council if they want to turn properties into short-term holiday lets like Airbnbs, in a development first reported in the Times.
The move to scrap planning targets is backed by some former cabinet ministers, including Theresa Villiers, Damian Green, Esther McVey, Priti Patel, Chris Grayling and Iain Duncan Smith. Labour will not back the move but Rishi Sunak is said to be unwilling to pass the measures on the back of Labour votes without a Conservative majority.
Villiers and other supporters have also submitted a slew of other amendments to the levelling up bill, including the change requiring planning permission for changing the use of a property as a tourist rental.
A departmental source did not deny it was on the table and said: “We are engaging with colleagues constructively to strengthen the bill.”
Other amendments submitted by Villiers include changing the statutory limit for starting development after planning permission from two years to one, and giving new powers to revoke planning permission from developers who have not started construction.
MPs who have seen Gove said that was also an area for agreement with the government. “I don’t think we are particularly far apart on those things; it’s about the right development in the right place,” one said.
Another said that “land banking” was the main area of concern, suggesting many rebels could live with the changes if targets were not abolished. “We are still negotiating and we have some days yet. Land banking is a big issue for me.”
Another amendment would require the secretary of state to review potential financial incentives for brownfield over greenfield development.
The vote on the report stage of the levelling up bill was pulled last week as the government scrambled to find a compromise. The row is awkward for Sunak who had promised in his Tory leadership bid to relax the five-year land supply rule, which determines whether there have been enough sites allocated for development, and also stop local authorities requesting changes to green belt boundaries.
Sunak is also facing two separate rebellions on the development of onshore wind, led by the former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke, who has tabled an amendment to lift the de facto ban. But John Hayes, the MP and close ally of the home secretary, Suella Braverman, has threatened to mount a counter-rebellion with the support of at least 19 MPs to stop further development of onshore wind.
The government has signalled it is likely to find a way to relax some of the onerous planning laws on onshore wind as a concession to Clarke, but will probably announce its own route to doing so rather than accept his amendment.
His amendment has been backed by a number of high-profile supporters, including the former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as the ex-chief whip Wendy Morton.
