Government Pushes New Planning Rules to Accelerate Housing Near Train Stations

The UK government’s revised National Planning Policy Framework now obliges local councils to give a default “yes” to proposals for new homes within 800 metres of train, tram and underground stations, even when the sites lie on green-belt land. The change is intended to speed the delivery of housing by unlocking land that has traditionally been held by Network Rail, which the government estimates owns at least 52,000 hectares nationwide.

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Britain’s major cities lag behind international peers in building homes close to public-transport hubs. Research by the Centre for Cities shows that the 12 largest British cities are missing at least 2.4 million homes within a ten-minute walk of stations, a gap that is especially acute in inner-city “urban cores.” Compared with France and Japan, British cities built roughly 50 percent fewer homes near stations between 2011 and 2021, and 30 percent of stations in large cities saw little or no nearby development.

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• The Centre for Cities estimates that 1.2 million homes could be built near stations in Britain’s largest cities.

Mind the density gap: How Britain’s big cities can build more homes near train stations

• In Liverpool, the area around James Street station could accommodate at least 3,000 additional homes.

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• Similar potential exists at eight Metrolink stations in Manchester city centre and at Salford’s Central rail station.

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• London alone is missing roughly 500,000 homes around its stations; Glasgow and Manchester each lack about 180,000 and 130,000 respectively.

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• If Britain matched French and Japanese densities, an extra 142,000 homes could have been built around Merseyrail stations.

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• Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, announced the national planning rule change, emphasizing the need for “default ‘yes’” decisions to overcome historic delays.

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The Centre for Cities highlighted that the current pace of land transfer from Network Rail to local authorities is a major bottleneck. In Liverpool, a memorandum of understanding signed in 2023 to hand over station control has yet to result in any transferred sites three years later. The think-tank proposes a “fast-track” partnership process and greater use of Mayoral Development Corporations (MDCs) to give mayors compulsory-purchase powers and direct planning authority. Critics argue that without these reforms, the new default-yes rule may simply shift responsibility without delivering actual housing.

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The government plans to rely on Mayors, local authorities and transport operators to implement the revised framework. The Centre for Cities recommends that Mayoral Development Corporations be expanded and that a streamlined “fast-track” mechanism be introduced to accelerate land-release partnerships with Network Rail. Further guidance on how green-belt sites will be assessed under the new rules is expected in upcoming departmental briefings.

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