Michael Gove to unveil plans to boost new home targets by cracking down on ‘Nimby’ councils while protecting the green belt

• Minister will criticise local authorities that oversee delays in housebuilding
• Announcing measures to boost planning performances and meet targets 

Michael Gove will unveil plans to crack down on slow-building ‘Nimby’ councils while protecting the green belt.

The Housing Secretary is set to criticise local authorities that oversee delays in housebuilding and announce measures to boost planning performances.

Last week it emerged that councils will not have to build homes on the green belt if a development significantly changes an area’s character in a bid to protect the countryside.

But ministers are keen to push local authorities to step up and meet housing targets.

A source at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: ‘We have been clear that the Government is on the side of the builders and not the blockers – councils must play their part and deliver the homes this country needs, without concreting over the countryside.’

Michael Gove is set to criticise local authorities that oversee delays in housebuilding and announce measures to boost planning performances

It comes as figures from the Home Builders Federation showed new housing developments fell to a record low. Its latest ‘housing pipeline’ report said that just 2,447 projects were approved in the third quarter of this year, down 3 per cent on the previous three months and 19 per cent down on the same period in 2022.

And the number of individual housing units granted permission from councils in England stood at 50,316 in the third quarter – 28 per cent lower than a year earlier.

Just 245,872 units received planning permission in the year to September, a 15 per cent drop on the previous year and the lowest figure since 2015.

Experts said it calls into question the Government’s target of delivering 300,000 new homes a year. Home Builders Federation chairman Stewart Baseley said: ‘This is the inevitable outcome of several years of anti-growth policy and rhetoric.’

Mr Gove’s plan is in contrast to Labour’s vow to build 1.5million homes by giving councils more powers to construct on green belt land.

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