REVISED housing targets for Barnsley will see a plan to bring hundreds more new homes a year than the previous goal - despite campaigners urging planning bosses to reduce the amount.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner will make local housing targets mandatory again, as she unveiled an overhaul of England’s planning rules to help deliver Labour’s promise of 1.5 million new homes by 2029.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures show the proposed target for Barnsley has been set at 1,092 new homes annually - up from the current target of 831 homes a year.
However, the news has been met with anger from campaigners who have long fought for a U-turn on the council’s so-called local plan, a development blueprint which in recent years has come under fire for ‘ripping up the town’s greenery’.
Huge developments in Hoyland have taken place since the plan’s adoption, with potential housing estates on land along the M1 motorway’s corridor near Barugh Green set for the coming years.
Ms Rayner said: “Our decisive reforms to the planning system correct the errors of the past and set us on our way to tackling the housing crisis, delivering 1.5 million homes for those who really need them.
“Our new flexibilities for councils will boost the number of social and affordable homes, and give working families a better route to a secure home.”
Across Yorkshire and the Humber, the target has shifted from 18,699 new home a year to 27,433 homes.
Meanwhile, London was the only region to see its target cut, falling from 98,820 homes a year to 80,690.
The reforms also make explicit that the default answer to brownfield development should be ‘yes’ and promote housebuilding at greater densities in urban centres, like towns and cities.
However, because there is not enough brownfield land in the country to meet housing needs, the government will allow the targeted release of so-called ‘grey belt land’, which includes disused petrol stations and car parks on parts of protected land known as the green belt.
Any green belt land released will be subject to ‘golden rules’ to ensure the development delivers 50 per cent affordable homes with a focus on social rent, and has access to green spaces and infrastructure such as schools and GP surgeries.
The method for local authorities to calculate how much land they must allocate for new housing, which relied on data from 2014, will be updated to ensure stock is boosted in every part of the country.
Ms Rayner added: “Rather than relying on outdated data, this new method will require local authorities to plan for homes proportionate to the size of existing communities, and it will incorporate an uplift where house prices are most out of step with local incomes.”
A local plan review - called for by Barnsley’s Liberal Democrats - was previously dismissed.
Coun Hannah Kitching told the Chronicle: “I voted against the council’s local plan development blueprint in 2019.
“I looked at the plan and I listened to what my residents in Penistone were telling me, so I could not support it.
“The reasons I gave at the time were simple: insufficient planning for infrastructure - schools, doctors, dentists, roads - lots of building houses, not enough creating communities, insufficient commitment to building affordable and social housing, far too much re-designation of green belt for housing with insufficient urban regeneration and brownfield development.
“These issues have not changed, if anything they have worsened as the national housing crisis has spread across the country and hit Barnsley hard, with people priced out of private rentals and 8,000-plus people on the council housing waiting lists.”
Barnsley Council confirmed an alteration proposal has been put to them and bosses are considering its implications.
A spokesperson added: “Government proposals to alter the National Planning Policy Framework were released earlier this week.
“Barnsley Council is currently considering the implications that this may have on our borough and will look to respond to the consultation by the deadline of September 24.”
