## English and Welsh councils to have greater powers to seize land for affordable housing

### Exclusive: Compulsory purchase orders will no longer need Whitehall permission under shake-up of planning rules

Councils and mayors will be granted greater powers to seize land to build affordable housing under the Labour government’s shake-up of  this week.

Local authorities in  and Wales will no longer need permission from central government to make compulsory purchase orders (CPOs), in a change that ministers hope will unlock vacant and derelict land.

The change will be made as part of the planning and infrastructure bill, which is expected to be introduced to parliament on Tuesday. It follows the closure last month of a public consultation on the mooted changes to the planning system.

As part of an overhaul of CPO rules, local authorities will no longer need to take into account a property’s “hope value” – an estimate of what it would be worth with planning permission.

Under changes introduced by the Conservatives, councils could ask ministers for permission to buy land without regard to its hope value on a case-by-case basis. Labour’s legislation will introduce a general rule allowing councils to buy land to build homes without paying its hope value.

Councils are being encouraged to make greater use of CPOs to build housing. The government said the changes would mean that homes and large infrastructure projects such as schools and hospitals could be built more quickly and cheaply, helping to regenerate local areas.

Labour pledged to deliver 1.5m new homes by the end of the parliament, a target that ministers have admitted will be difficult to meet. The party has put housing affordability at the heart of its pitch to voters and vowed to get more young people on to the property ladder.

The planning bill will introduce sweeping changes to the planning process, including greater powers for mayors and local authorities, intended to speed up housebuilding and unblock delays. In January, Keir Starmer vowed to end the “challenge culture by taking on the Nimbys” who use repeated legal challenges to block building projects.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, said on Monday that ministers wanted to “see regeneration happening in every part of this country”, adding: “And to do that we need to make sure public bodies have the tools they need to unlock vacant and derelict sites for public benefit.”

“We’ve been clear that use of these powers should be considered where negotiations to acquire land by agreement are failing and holding back progress. These new powers will support councils and others play their part in delivering 1.5m homes, with the biggest boost to affordable and social housing in a generation, alongside vital infrastructure as part of our Plan for Change.”

Leicester city council used its compulsory purchase powers a decade ago for the regeneration of the city’s waterside area, which has involved the construction of 1,000 houses and development of 9,000 sq metres (96,875 sq ft) of office space.

The area, which had been in decline since the closure of local industries in the 1980s, was comprehensively redeveloped after the council used CPOs to buy the 7-hectare (17-acre) site and demolish derelict buildings.
```