Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has renewed Labour’s rural raid after forcing farmers to sell fields “for less than their potential value”.
Rayner’s Planning & Infrastructure Bill will ensure councils can target fields to build new hospitals, schools and homes through compulsory purchase orders.
The new law will also allow local authorities to purchase land for its current value rather than the price given for developed land, giving farmers a fraction of their expected return.
Rayner said: “The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes, and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect billpayers.”
Angela Rayner
GETTY
However, rural communities believe the move will punish farmers at a time when many wait for inheritance tax changes to come in after April 2026.
Gavin Lane, deputy vice-president of the Country Land and Business Association, said: “We urgently need more affordable housing, but pushing landowners into selling land isn’t the answer.”
Tim Bonner, from the Countryside Alliance, added: “We have been supportive of many of the Government’s changes to planning policy, but giving councils more power to reduce the value of land is a step too far, especially in the context of such a challenging outlook for farmers and the inheritance tax fiasco.
“This is not about people blocking development, it’s about the state paying the market price for land. We need more houses and more economic development, but not at the cost of basic principles.”
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Farmers have been protesting against the inheritance tax raid
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Rayner is also hoping to see off local Nimby opposition by paying households near pylons £250 a year and making it harder for communities to block energy infrastructure.
The Housing Secretary’s remains intent on bolstering Britain’s house-building targets, with Labour committed to delivering 1.5 million new homes.
“The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes, and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect billpayers,” Rayner said.
“It will help us to deliver the 1.5 million homes we have committed to so we can tackle the housing crisis we have inherited head on – not only for people desperate to buy a home, but for the families and young children stuck in temporary accommodation and in need of a safe, secure roof over their heads.”
Matthew Pennycook
GB News
However, Labour Minister Matthew Pennycook this morning rejected the suggestion that Rayner’s legislation will force a land grab.
He told GB News: “It’s not an attack on rural England, and it’s not forcing farmers to give up their land for more than a reasonable rate.
“What we are doing through these reforms is ensuring in certain circumstances where a local council thinks it’s appropriate to use compulsory purchase powers that a fair market value is paid for the land, rather than the inflated costs of permissions with hope value built in.
“We’re unashamed about the fact that we do want to see greater use of these powers, as I said, to build the homes. We need to bring forward the critical infrastructure we need. We do need to unlock more land, to assemble land more efficiently.”