2024 General Election Planning pledges in the Conservative and Labour manifestos

Conservative 

Labour

A promise to increase the annual national housing delivery target to 1.6 million homes in England in the next Parliament[1]

A pledge to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years[2]

A “cast-iron commitment to protect the green belt from uncontrolled development, while ensuring more homes get built where it makes sense, like in inner cities”[3]

A commitment to ‘preserve the green belt’, but take a ‘strategic approach’ to releasing “lower quality ‘green belt’ land” whilst maintaining a “brownfield first approach”[4]

The release of lower quality ‘grey belt’ land will be prioritised, with ‘golden rules’ introduced to ensure development benefits communities and nature[5]

Housing delivery would be focused on Brownfield land in urban areas, providing a ‘fast-track’ planning route for new homes on previously developed land in England’s 20 largest cities[6]

A pledge to increase housing density levels in London “to those of European cities like Paris and Barcelona”, ensuring the London Plan delivers more family homes, forcing the Mayor to plan for more homes on brownfield sites such as “underused industrial land”[7]

Planning Gain Measures 

Reducing section 106 requirements on smaller sites, which will support smaller builders by requiring councils to “to set land aside for them”[8]

A promise to abolish compulsory purchase order ‘hope value’, confirming the plan to reform CPO rules, ensuring that for “specific types of development schemes, landowners  are awarded fair compensation rather than inflated prices based on the prospect of planning permission”.[9]

A re-commitment to the proposed new infrastructure levy, which will replace the community infrastructure levy. This will make “sure local authorities use the Infrastructure Levy to deliver the GP surgeries, roads and other local infrastructure needed to support homes”[10]

Other Development Management Changes

A pledge to “focus the role of statutory consultees in the planning system on improving projects in line with clearer objectives, rather than piecemeal requirements that add delays”[11]

A promise to ensure that councils “have the powers they need to manage the uncontrolled growth of holiday lets”[12]

Local Planning Authorities

A pledge to give regional mayors and combined authorities new planning powers along with new freedoms and flexibilities to make better use of grant funding[13]

A commitment to introduce “cross- boundary strategic planning”’ and a requirement for combined and mayoral authorities to strategically plan for housing growth in their areas[14]

A promise to “take tough action to ensure that planning authorities have up-to-date local plans”[15]

Planning Officers

A commitment to appoint 300 new planning officers, which would be funded by £20 million of revenue from increased stamp duty of 1% on purchases of residential property by non-UK residents. [16]

Environmental Measures

A proposed re-attempt to abolish legacy EU ‘nutrient neutrality rules’ to “immediately unlock the building of 100,000 new homes”. Developers would instead “pay a one-off” mitigation fee so there is no net additional pollution”[17]

Pledge to help deliver homes affected by nutrient neutrality, by ‘implementing solutions to unlock the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality without weakening environmental protections’.[18]

A pledge to require developers to ‘offset’ the impact of developments, ensuring that “any requirements to offset the impact of new infrastructure and homes on an area are proportionate, without compromising environmental outcomes”[19]

A commitment to “take steps to ensure we are building more high quality, well designed, and sustainable homes and creating places that increase climate resilience and promote nature recovery”[20]

A promise to “introduce reforms to outdated EU red tape to better protect nature while enabling the building of new homes, new prisons and new energy schemes” [21]

Regeneration

A pledge to create development corporations in partnership with the private sector and institutional investors, to help deliver new quarters in three northern cities (Leeds, Liverpool and York)[22]

A pledge to build a new generation of new towns. Alongside urban extensions and regeneration projects, this will form part of a series of large-scale new communities across England[23]

A pledge to “empower communities through devolution and new powers”, giving “every part of England that wants on, will have a devolution deal” by 2030[24]

Infrastructure

A promise to “speed up the average time it takes to sign off major infrastructure projects from four years to one”[25]

A pledge to develop a ten-year infrastructure strategy which will “guide investment plans and give the private sector certain about the project pipeline”[26]

Quicker revisions to national policy statements and consented NSIPs, reducing “the cost of infrastructure by allowing quicker changes to consented projects”[27]

A pledge to “create a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, bringing together existing bodies, to set strategic infrastructure priorities and oversee the design, scope and delivery of projects”[28]

Ending “frivolous legal challenges that frustrated infrastructure delivery by amending the law so judicial reviews that don’t have merit do not waste court time” [29]

A pledge to make “the changes we need” to “forge ahead with new roads, railways, reservoirs and other nationally significant infrastructure” [30]

Proposals to scale up nuclear power, promising to approve “two new fleets of small modular reactors” within the first 100 days of the next parliament[31]

A pledge to “set out new national policy statements, make major projects faster and cheaper by slashing red tape, and build support for developments by ensuring communities directly benefit”[32]

A new gigawatt power station for at Wylfa, in North Wales and work “with industry to deliver existing projects at Hinkley Point and Sizewell”[33]

A pledge to update national planning policy to ensure the needs of a modern economy, helping to deliver laboratories, digital infrastructure and gigafactories[34]

A pledge to build scale up carbon capture and storage clusters, based across North Wales and, the North West of England and Teesside and the Humber, as well as progressing “the second trance of projects in Aberdeenshire and the Humber”[35]

Mayors will have a “duty to promote and grow the use of rail freight”[36]

A promise to build four new prisons, making It “easier to build prisons in appropriate Places by scrapping legacy EU rules and streamlining the planning system”[37]

A pledge to improve health infrastructure, promising to “build or modernise 250 GP surgeries, focused on areas of new housing growth”. Also a commitment to building “50 more community diagnostic centres, including in underserved areas”[38]

Town Centres

A promise to regenerate high streets Through local market days and revamped shopping centres by changing “planning laws to support places”[39]

Affordable and Community Housing

A pledge to renew the Affordable Homes Programme, delivering homes of all tenures and focusing on regeneration and improving housing estates[40]

A promise to deliver more social and affordable housing that will “strengthen planning obligations to ensure new developments provide more affordable homes”[41]

A commitment to “support” those who want to build or commission their own home by making the planning process simpler, supporting more community housing schemes[42]

Policy

A pledge to “immediately update the National Policy Planning Framework to undo damaging Conservative changes, including restoring mandatory housing targets”[43]