Directly elected mayors in England to gain new powers to overrule councils on planning

The UK government has announced that directly elected mayors in 13 English combined authorities — regional bodies made up of neighbouring councils working together — will gain new planning "call-in" powers, allowing them to overrule local councils on certain planning decisions.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook set out the changes, which extend to mayoral authorities across England a tool already exercised by the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan (BBC News).

The 13 areas covered are Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, the West of England, the West Midlands, the North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, Greater Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the East Midlands, and Tees Valley. Together they account for the bulk of England's combined authority geography outside the capital.

Pennycook said the new powers were "an essential part of the toolkit that mayors need to effectively deliver new homes and regeneration." He pointed to the London mayor's experience, saying call-in powers had helped "unblock strategic growth sites" in the capital. The same mechanism, he argued, would help metro mayors elsewhere overcome local blockages where individual councils stall on decisions that matter across a wider area.

The powers extend beyond call-in. Mayors are also set to be able to grant "up-front permission," a mechanism that would allow building to begin without a developer having to submit a separate planning application. Think of it as a pre-approved green light: the mayor grants consent in principle, and the detailed application stage is bypassed.

A consultation on how both sets of new powers will operate in practice is due to be published next week. It will give local authority leaders, developers and campaign groups the first detailed look at the government's proposed framework.

In a further shift, the government will direct Homes England — the national housing delivery agency — to align its work with local mayors' priorities. That gives mayors a bigger say over housing funding decisions flowing through the agency's programmes, rather than relying solely on Whitehall-led allocation.

The announcement sits within Labour's wider housing commitments. The party promised in its 2024 general election manifesto to build 1.5 million homes in England by the end of the decade. Pennycook acknowledged that the target was "really stretching," but said nearly 180,000 children were in temporary accommodation, underlining the pressure driving the government's urgency on supply.

The Conservatives have questioned whether it is right for councils to lose the ability to make planning decisions within their own communities. The objection touches on a genuine tension within English devolution: combined authority mayors are elected across wide geographies, while district and borough councils, which typically determine planning applications, are elected locally.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham offered a more nuanced view, saying that challenge to local decision-making was needed and that local authorities sometimes put forward proposals whose impact on communities was unacceptable. His remarks suggest that, at least among metro mayors, there is an appetite for the leverage these powers provide, though how aggressively they are used will likely vary by region and political complexion.

The broader context here is one of shifting democratic accountability. Centralising decision-making at the mayoral level may speed delivery, but it also moves responsibility for site-level outcomes away from the most local tier of government — the councils closest to the people directly affected.

The political context matters too. Most of the 13 mayoral authorities are now held by Labour, though not all. The call-in powers will give those mayors a tool to override Conservative-run councils within their patch, and vice versa where a Conservative or independent mayor oversees Labour-held districts. The government will be aware that any perception of partisan use, whether fair or not, would invite scrutiny.

There is also a practical question about capacity. Call-in and up-front permission powers place significant demands on combined authority planning teams, which are generally smaller than those of individual councils. London, which has had these powers for years, built up institutional expertise over time. The 13 combined authorities will need to develop that capability alongside the new responsibilities, and the consultation next week may signal whether the government intends to attach new funding to the powers or expects authorities to absorb the cost.

How this interacts with the government's wider planning reforms will be closely watched. The National Planning Policy Framework changes, mandatory housing targets for local authorities, and the expansion of mayoral development corporations all point in the same direction: a centralisation of planning leverage away from district councils towards combined authorities and Whitehall. The call-in announcement is one more step in that trajectory, and one that local government leaders, regardless of party, will need to factor into their strategic planning.