Rayner ditches review into London Plan ordered by predecessor Gove

Angela Rayner has officially shelved a mandatory review of the London Plan ordered by her predecessor Michael Gove.

The housing secretary, in an open letter to Sadiq Khan, said she is ditching an order to the mayor to carry out a partial review of the plan. She described the decision as a “demonstration of the government’s commitment to working in partnership” with City Hall.

Gove earlier this year used powers under the Greater London Authority Act to order Khan to carry out a partial review of the plan – London’s spatial development strategy- by looking at two areas. These included looking at 736ha of industrial land in the capital which the then government believe could be turned into housing but is stuck in the planning system. Gove also asked Khan to ensure 47 areas identified as having the potential to deliver at least 2,500 new homes – so-called “opportunity areas” – are sufficiently targeted.

In the letter to Khan, Rayner said the issues of opportunity areas and industrial land “cannot be meaningfully considered in isolation” and would be better undertaken as part of an overall review of the plan Khan is in any case due to undertake.

She said: “Withdrawing the direction will allow the government and the Greater London Authority to take a new partnership approach on our shared aim to deliver the homes London needs. This will be critical to achieving our joint goal of tackling the housing crisis.”

Rayner re-iterated that the government believes the current standard method for calculating housing need, which applies a 35% uplift for all London boroughs, “results in a target for the capital that is divorced from reality”

She said: “It effectively made tens of thousands of homes a fiction, existing on paper but never realistically planned for, when if reallocated to other places these numbers could have been delivered. The government is clear that it needs revision.”

>>See also: The ins and outs of Labour’s new National Planning Policy Framework

The government’s consultation on its proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework closed last Tuesday. The government is proposing to change the standard method, which will require 90% of councils outside the capital to build more.

London, by contrast, will see its target drop from 100,000 homes a year to 80,000 as a result. This still higher than the 53,000 accounted for in the London Plan and the 35,000 built last year.