Day 11 — Proposal 10
10
Planning Reform
End Planning Paralysis
Current policy — Manifesto 1.1
A national housing and infrastructure test, a continuing local planning role and a final central-government intervention power for repeatedly blocked nationally significant projects, with enforceable standards.
Published Manifesto 1.1 policy. The sections below set out the proposal as published. Questions and challenges are open questions, not settled answers.
Key figures
- Local role
- Retained
- Local planning authorities keep a major role in decision-making.
- National test
- Housing and infrastructure
- Creates a presumption in favour of approval for qualifying projects.
- Central power
- Final intervention
- Available where nationally significant housing or infrastructure projects are repeatedly blocked.
- Standards
- Enforceable
- Infrastructure, design and environmental obligations are maintained.
1. Jamie Foster: why planning reform matters
For far too long, planning has been paralysed by NIMBYism — ‘not in my back yard’ opposition to development. I believe Britain needs a clearer route to deliver nationally important homes and infrastructure while retaining a meaningful local planning role and enforceable standards.
Legitimate concerns about infrastructure, design and environmental obligations deserve to be heard and addressed. The proposal is intended to prevent repeated blockage of qualifying nationally significant development while retaining those safeguards.
2. The commitment
Manifesto 1.1 — the master wording
“Local planning authorities will retain a major role, but central government will retain a final power of intervention where nationally significant housing or infrastructure projects are repeatedly blocked. A national housing and infrastructure test will create a presumption in favour of approval for qualifying projects, while maintaining enforceable standards for infrastructure, design and environmental obligations. The objective is to prevent indefinite blockage of nationally important development while retaining those standards.”
3. How it would work
- Local planning authorities retain a major role: local planning authorities retain a major role in the proposed planning framework.
- A national housing and infrastructure test: qualifying projects gain a presumption in favour of approval. A presumption is not automatic approval.
- A final central-government intervention power: central government retains a final power of intervention where nationally significant housing or infrastructure projects are repeatedly blocked.
- Enforceable standards are maintained: infrastructure, design and environmental obligations continue to apply and remain enforceable.
4. How it connects to housing
The Day 10 revised Proposal 09 sets a national target of one million additional homes over ten years through mixed tenure. That release already provides faster planning routes for qualifying schemes and an infrastructure-first principle.
This planning proposal is the separate decision-making framework alongside it. It makes no new financing promises and does not change the housing programme’s targets or costings.
Related release
Read Day 10 — Revised Proposal 09: One Million New HomesQuestions & Challenges
Nothing in Manifesto 1.1 is presented as settled fact. These are open questions the proposal must be able to answer — they are not answered here.
- 01How should the national housing and infrastructure test identify qualifying projects?
- 02How should repeated blockage be assessed before central intervention?
- 03How can local participation and enforceable infrastructure, design and environmental standards be protected in practice?
Source and numbering: Manifesto 1.1 Complete Working Master, Part IV — Housing, p. 11, section 13 “Planning reform”, Major Promise 11 “End Planning Paralysis”. The separate GitHub website’s policy index lists this as “12. Planning Reform”. Those are manuscript and index reference systems, not public-release proposal numbers: this release is Day 11 / Proposal 10. It is a standalone planning release following the revised housing proposal, and is not a revision of the housing proposal.
Download the Manifesto 1.1 Complete Working Master (PDF)Have Your Say
What is your view on this proposal?
Scrutiny, not endorsement. Disagreement is as useful here as support.
Responses are counted anonymously and the running totals are shown publicly beside each option. One response per device, changeable at any time.
Have an objection, question or better alternative?
Set out your argument. Serious challenges shape later versions of the manifesto.