Burnham to grant mayors power over major planning decisions to accelerate housing

Andy Burnham is preparing to hand England's mayors a new lever over one of the country's most contentious decisions: whether large housing developments get built. The proposal, set to be unveiled next week, would let mayors override or fast-track planning approvals that councils have already made, effectively inserting themselves into the local approval process at a critical moment.

Under the scheme, mayors would gain what's known as "call-in" powers for any development exceeding 150 homes, commercial buildings larger than 15,000 square metres, or structures reaching 30 metres or higher—roughly ten storeys. Once invoked, a mayor could direct a council to proceed with a project or reject it outright. Even more dramatically, mayors could grant upfront permission, allowing developers to begin construction without submitting a formal application. The threshold is deliberately broad, designed to capture the kinds of projects that tend to stall in local disputes.

Burnham acknowledged the obvious tension in the idea. Speaking to the Sunday Times, he conceded that concentrating planning power in mayoral hands could diminish the voice of councillors, MPs, and residents. But he framed it as a necessary corrective to a system that sometimes blocks development for reasons beyond legitimate community concern. "Sometimes challenge does need to be made to local decision-making," he said, noting that local authorities themselves can propose projects with unacceptable impacts. The implication was clear: nimbyism cuts both ways, and mayors would serve as a check on parochial obstruction from either direction.

The political backing is substantial. Ten of the fourteen devolved mayors across different parties have already endorsed the approach, suggesting this isn't a partisan power grab but a pragmatic response to a genuine bottleneck. The model isn't new—London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, received identical powers earlier this year in what the government framed as an emergency intervention to unlock stalled sites and accelerate affordable housing delivery in the capital. Burnham's proposal would extend that experiment nationwide.

The government is chasing an ambitious target: 1.5 million homes built across England within five years. It's currently about a quarter of the way there. Planning delays are widely understood as a significant drag on that progress, and mayoral intervention is being positioned as a tool to cut through them. Mayors will also gain greater influence over how national housing funding from Homes England is allocated in their regions, and they'll be able to levy charges on developers to fund supporting infrastructure.

Safeguards exist, though their teeth are debatable. Any mayoral decision must align with existing planning rules, local development plans, and national policy. Ministers retain a backstop power to intervene if they believe a mayor has overstepped. But the practical effect is clear: decisions that once belonged entirely to councils and their constituents will now be subject to mayoral review and reversal.

Opposition has been swift. The Liberal Democrats called the move a "direct attack" on community voice. Gideon Amos, their housing and planning spokesperson, argued that stripping powers from local councils amounts to stripping them from local people. He characterized the government's approach as chaotic devolution that would silence residents rather than solve the housing crisis, and called instead for resources to help councils deliver affordable homes alongside necessary infrastructure.

A formal consultation launches next week, but the direction is set. The question now is whether concentrating planning authority in fewer hands actually accelerates housing delivery or simply shifts the site of conflict from council chambers to mayoral offices.