Angela Rayner is either showing her ignorance of how the planning system works or she has been duped by the home builders’ lobby if she believes that reforming planning by itself will result in Labour achieving its aim of 1.5m new homes in this parliament (Rayner set to hit English councils that block new housing with tougher sanctions, 29 August).
Ever since the sale of council housing under the Conservatives left councils with none of the land value of those homes, we have lacked the ability for councils to control their local land market. It is the developer that decides when to submit a planning application, when to start building once a housing development gets consent, and the rate of building. Councils cannot influence any of that. Once development has started (any little bit of siteworks is enough) it can take years for the slightest progress to happen and councils can do nothing.
