Rishi Sunak faces Tory rebellion over planning as MPs push to make homebuilding targets ‘advisory’

Ministers have postponed a vote on changing planning laws after dozens of Tory backbenchers threatened to rebel to tighten rules on building homes in the countryside and suburbs.

Rishi Sunak faced a major backlash from a hard core of Tory MPs who planned to push to end mandatory housing construction targets in a vote next week.

More than 40 backbench MPs have signed an amendment to the flagship Leveling Bill that would ban councils from considering housing construction targets when deciding on planning applications.

The amendment is one of several proposed by former environment secretary Theresa Villiers that would make sweeping changes to the planning system, including easing the ban on councils building on greenfield land and providing more incentives to develop brownfields.

Sources said tonight the vote was likely to be pushed back for at least several weeks due to the time needed for votes on the money bill, with time used to ‘engage constructively’ with the rebels.

But the proposal has also sparked a pushback within divided Tory ranks, with former leveling secretary Simon Clarke, who represents an urban seat in Middlesbrough, saying it was “very wrong” at a time when the number of new houses being built is “too much”. down’.

“I fully understand how inappropriate development has poisoned the new homes debate in constituencies like Chipping Barnet (Ms Villiers’ seat), but I don’t think abandoning all housing targets is the right answer. “, did he declare.

The amendment is one of several proposed by former environment secretary Theresa Villiers that would make sweeping changes to the planning system, including easing the ban on councils building on greenfield land and providing more incentives to develop brownfields.

But the proposal has sparked pushback within Tory ranks, with former leveling secretary Simon Clarke saying it was ‘very wrong’ at a time when the number of new homes being built is ‘too low’ .

“There are serious issues we need to tackle, such as the perverse ‘nutrition neutrality’ issue currently preventing the construction of perhaps 100,000 new homes. It would ease the pressure elsewhere.

“But we must also recognize the fundamental intergenerational injustice that we will deepen and perpetuate if we destroy already *too low* levels of housing construction in this country. Economically and socially, it would be disastrous. Politically, that would be insane.

Meanwhile, co-author of the 2019 Tory manifesto Robert Colville said the proposed changes would ‘enshrine ‘Nimbyism’ as the guiding principle of British society’, and called it ‘Destroying the planning system and deepen the 2022 recession”.

Supporters of Ms Villiers have insisted they do not want to stop housing construction, only to give communities more say in where homes are built.

Bob Seely, MP for the Isle of Wight and an early supporter of Ms Villiers’ amendments, said: ‘The current system is not producing housing.

“The reason we don’t have enough homes under construction is that building permits are issued – there are a million existing building permits – but the big oligarch housebuilders just sit on them.

“The idea that if you license Persimmon for another 1,000 houses, you get 1,000 houses is delusional nonsense.”

He added: “We are not nimbys. What we do is care about our communities, care about our environment.

His comments echoed those of former cabinet minister Damian Green who, writing on the ConservativeHome website, said developers not building homes they had permission for were a bigger problem than advice refusing permission “due to pressure from hordes of nimby baby boomers”.

Support for the amendment to scrap housing targets has risen over the past week from nine MPs on November 15 to 46 on Tuesday, including high-profile figures such as former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former ministers Sir John Redwood, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, Wendy Morton and Priti Patel.

That would be enough to leave the government dependent on Labor votes to reject the amendment, but Mr Seely insisted the move was not intended to challenge Rishi Sunak’s authority.

He said: ‘We love Rishi. He is going to be a great leader.

‘It’s not about attacking Rishi in any way. It’s about getting the politics right and the Conservative MPs standing up for their communities.

Other amendments proposed by Ms Villiers would see tighter restrictions on homes converted to holiday rentals, more financial penalties for not building once planning permission has been granted and allowing councils to consider the character of a promoter when deciding on a planning application.

On Wednesday, Downing Street said Mr Sunak was still committed to the government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘We want to work constructively to make sure we build more houses in the right places.’ This is something that the department and the secretary of state are very focused on.

He added that Housing Secretary Michael Gove would continue to discuss how the 300,000 housing target had been achieved.

Labor is expected to oppose the abandonment of housing construction targets.