英国拟赋予英格兰地区市长介入大型规划审批权，利好房屋建设但非新增独家催化

Burnham to allow English mayors to ‘call in’ big local planning decisions
Andy Burnham is to give mayors across England the power to “call in” the biggest planning decisions in their areas, in a shake-up intended to promote economic growth and take on local “Nimby” opposition.
The prime minister, a former mayor of Greater Manchester, wants to put regional mayors in the driving seat of pushing projects that promote growth or help to meet the government’s ambitious target of 1.5mn new homes in this parliament.
A consultation on how the powers will work will be published next week, but the aim is for mayors to be able to direct a local council on whether to take forward or block major planning applications.
The move has been backed by 10 mayors from different political parties and will give regional leaders powers already held by Sir Sadiq Khan, Labour mayor of London.
The threshold for potential mayoral intervention covers schemes with at least 150 homes, more than 15,000 square metres of commercial space or any building that is 30 metres or higher.
Under Burnham’s plan, mayors will also be able to grant upfront permission for development, so that building can begin without a developer having to apply.
The government said councils would continue to decide on the majority of applications and that every decision would have to follow the planning rules, the local plan and national policy.
Applicants would retain the right of appeal, and ministers would also keep a backstop power to intervene themselves.
Mayors outside London will also be able to charge a development levy to fund major infrastructure, using the same tool that helped deliver London’s Elizabeth line.
The government emphasised that its latest move was aimed at ensuring major projects get the “green light”.
Burnham told the Sunday Times that the decision might upset “Nimby”, or “not in my back yard”, local leaders, but that it was necessary in the name of growth. Too often politicians “turn to political advantage rather than what’s best for the place”, he added.
The prime minister, who opposed greenbelt development during the recent Makerfield by-election campaign, said mayors should focus on brownfield sites for development rather than greenbelt.
While mayor himself, Burnham was not enthusiastic about taking on call-in powers.
When the idea was floated by Labour in opposition in 2022, he told the FT that it was not a power “that I argued for, to be honest with you”, adding: “Sometimes you get things that you didn’t necessarily expect.”
During his time as mayor, Burnham had a particularly fraught relationship with local planning policy.
Having originally promised in 2017 that Greater Manchester’s long-term planning blueprint could be achieved with no net loss of greenbelt, several councils insisted on keeping large growth-related sites in their plans.
Ultimately Burnham was forced to break the promise, blaming overly high central government housing targets.