Reform UK unveils sweeping plans to deregulate the planning system

Reform UK has unveiled plans to cut affordable housing requirements on brownfield land to 5% and scrap all spatial development strategies including the London plan as part of a “radical agenda to halt Britain’s housing crisis”.

The party’s housing spokesperson Richard Tice announced sweeping plans to deregulate the planning system today on the first day of Reform’s annual conference with the proposals also including an ambition to scrap biodiversity net gain requirements on brownfield land.

The policy platform, set out in a green paper format in what Reform has dubbed its “Planning Teal Paper” in reference to the party’s trademark colour, is being put out to consultation with business and industry experts invited to provide feedback over the next four months.

The deadline for responses to the consultation is 31 December with the party’s finalised planning policy to be announced in full next year.

Measures aiming to stimulate housing supply and prioritise brownfield development in urban areas under the proposed Reform Planning Bill include scrapping all Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 payments for residential schemes on brownfield land.

Tax incentives for brownfield developments would include abolishing landfill tax, exempting new brownfield homes from both stamp duty and tax on rental income for a decade after completion. The latter two policies would reduce tax receipts by just over £1bn, according to the party.

Other tax measures include exempting newbuild homes on brownfield sites from capital gains tax for a decade after completion, which the party claimed would have no effect on tax receipts.

All external and internal standards in the building regulations regime which set out how buildings should be constructed at planning stage would be scrapped except for those which are “necessary”, including fire safety.

Reform UK said this was being proposed on the basis that these regulations had led to substantial planning delays and increased building costs while homes “have not become materially safer”.

A proposed simplification of planning applications on brownfield sites would remove the requirement for environmental statements, repeal habitat regulations and biodiversity net gain requirements while watering down requirements for the latter two regimes on greenfield sites.

All affordable housing requirements on brownfield schemes would be scrapped except in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol, where it would be slashed to 5% on-site for schemes with 20 or more homes, or a payment equivalent to 10% off-site.

Brownfield residential schemes would be given a presumption of approval “in all but the most exceptional cases” and regardless of whether a housing land supply or delivery shortfall exists in the area.

Spatial development strategies including the London Plan would be scrapped, while the timeframe of local plans would be capped at five years with a review in year four to lay the groundwork for the next five-year plan.

Local plans would also be made map-based, while any requirements for the plans to set out planning policies would be removed to allow policy to be set at a national level.

In a foreword to the paper, Tice, a former property developer, said he had “delivered thousands of homes for British men and women… [and] therefore know better than most how harmful ill-thought-through policies can be to industry”.

“That is why before committing to the policies we are putting them in the public realm and inviting constructive criticism, suggestions and improvements from industry and the public alike,” he added.

Tice has already announced plans to build 50,000 social homes every year for the next ten years and evict foreign nationals, which he said would free up around one million homes for “British families”.

He said in today’s paper that Reform UK aims to ensure that new and existing social housing is “not abused but goes to the most deserving claimants”.