Michael Gove relaxes planning rules in bid to meet housing target

Michael Gove is announcing plans to relax planning rules in England to create more homes in towns and cities.

The levelling up secretary says he wants to make it easier to convert empty retail premises and betting shops into flats and houses.

But critics say such conversions are often poor quality.

It comes as Rishi Sunak insists his party will meet its commitment to building a million homes before the next election, expected in 2024.

A report by the Commons housing committee earlier this month found that while ministers are on track to deliver its one million homes target they are not expected to meet their other commitment to deliver 300,000 new homes every year by the mid-2020s.

Hitting that figure became harder after the government was forced to water down its housing targets on local councils following a fierce backlash from its own MPs.

The prime minister said his government would not be "concreting over the countryside" adding: "Our plan is to build the right homes where there is the most need and where there is local support, in the heart of Britain's great cities."

Lisa Nandy, Labour's shadow housing secretary, said: "It takes some serious brass neck for the Tories to make yet more promises when the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse on their watch."

In a speech in central London, Mr Gove will provide details of his plan to build more homes including making it easier to convert shops, takeaways and betting shops into homes.

This idea has been around for a long time, with minister launching a consultation on such changes back in 2013.

The Local Government Association has warned that offices, shops and barns are not always suitable for housing, and could result in the creation of poor quality homes.

Mr Gove also wants to ease rules on building extensions to commercial buildings and repurposing agricultural buildings.

In order to speed up big developments, the government will establish what it calls a "super squad" of planners to unblock certain projects - a development in Cambridge will be the team's first task. Developers will be asked to pay higher fees to fund improvements to the planning system.

However, in an early sign that Mr Gove's plans may attract criticism from the government's own MPs, Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire Anthony Browne has tweeted: "I will do everything I can to stop the government's nonsense plans to impose mass housebuilding on Cambridge, where all major developments are now blocked by the Environment Agency because we have quite literally run out of water."

The issue of building more homes has been a tricky one for the government. While there is great demand for housing, particularly among younger voters struggling to get on the property ladder, new housing developments have proved unpopular in Conservative heartlands.