Ministers have been granted extra powers to block councils from refusing planning permission for key housebuilding and other major projects, as the government bids to cut construction red tape.  

The housing department says that ministers from this week will be able to issue “holding directions” to stop councils refusing planning permission while they consider using their “call-in” powers. 

A minister’s call in power allows them to intervene in local decisions and take over the decision-making process. 

The department adds: “Under existing rules, they [ministers] can only issue these holds when councils are set to approve applications. This will ensure ministers can properly use their call-in powers where necessary to boost growth and build more homes.” 

The move aims to support the government’s flagship Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which aims to sweep away a range of restrictions, as Labour aims to build 1.5 million new homes by the next election. 

This Bill cleared its third reading in the House of Commons in June and will move to the report stage in the House of Lords on 20 October. 

The government says the legislation is on track “to become law this year”.  

The housing department says ministers will also gain the power to stop planning permissions from being “timed out” for approved major housing schemes facing long judicial reviews. 

It adds this “builds on existing measures to cut back meritless legal challenges for major infrastructure projects and slashes a year off the statutory pre-consultation period”. 

Housing secretary Steve Reed (pictured) said: “Britain’s potential has been shackled by governments unwilling to overhaul the stubborn planning system that has erected barriers to building at every turn. 

“The changes we are making today will strengthen the seismic shift already underway through our landmark Bill.  

“We will ‘Build, baby, build’ with 1.5 million new homes and communities that working people desperately want and need.” 

The government says its changes will also allow the faster building of key projects, such as reservoirs, or windfarms, that are considered nationally significant.

Labour says it is “on track” to make 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure projects over the next five years, with 21 decisions already made in the first year of this Parliament. 

These include the green light for £2.2bn Gatwick airport expansion and the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing tunnel.  

Chancellor Rachel Reeves adds: “The outdated planning system has been gummed up by burdensome bureaucracy and held to ransom by blockers for too long.   

“Our pro-growth planning bill shows we are serious about cutting red tape to get Britain building again, backing the builders not the blockers to speed up projects and show investors that we are a country that gets spades in the ground and our economy growing.” 

Anna Moore, co-founder and chief executive of retrofit specialist builder Domna, welcomes plans to streamline planning rules, but says that more should be done to bring England’s 350,000 long-term vacant homes back into use. 

Moore points out: “The government’s announcement to further streamline planning rules is welcome but ignores the elephant in the room of housing delivery – namely that it is far easier and cheaper to fix already existing homes than it is to build new ones.  

“It is striking that ministers have proposed to make compulsory purchase easier for new development land, but not for existing empty homes.  

“While building new homes will deliver supply in several years’ time, restoring the 350,000 long-term vacant homes will increase supply far more quickly and without the associated cost or environmental impact of new construction.”