Tory rebellion on house targets

RISHI Sunak faces a significant rebellion today as Conservative MPs push for an end to mandatory housebuilding targets.

More than 40 backbenchers have signed an amendment to the flagship Levelling Up Bill that would ban councils from taking housebuilding targets into account when deciding on planning applications.

The amendment is one of several proposed by former Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers that would bring wholesale changes to the planning system, including making it easier for councils to ban building on greenfield land and providing more incentives to develop brownfield sites.

Ms Villiers’s proposals have been criticised by some, including 2019 Tory manifesto co-author Robert Colville, who said they would “enshrine ‘nimbyism’ as the governing principle of British society”.