Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has unveiled plans Labour claims will help save Britain's dying boozers, with pubs closing at a rate of almost two per day. Under the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) announced on Monday, updated rules would make it harder for developers to turn pubs into flats or shops.
According to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), 794 pubs have closed so far this year, and the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said the rate of closures equated to two per day in the first quarter of 2026. It is estimated that as many as 2,400 jobs have been lost as a result.
Reasons for closures
Eye-watering energy bills, former Chancellor Rachel Reeves' National Insurance hike, and VAT and business rates have all been blamed for creating a perfect storm for calling time on much-loved hostelries.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Ms Rayner said it was an "outrage" that too many pubs were being allowed to "slip away without a fight".
New planning rules
Under the changes, which will come into effect immediately, developers must prove there is no reasonable prospect of keeping a pub afloat before a change of use can be considered. The shake-up will also cut bureaucracy by ending the statutory requirement to consult some organisations on development decisions.
She told the paper: "Pubs are part of who we are as a nation. They're where we celebrate, grieve, argue and belong, the beating heart of so many of our communities, and it's an outrage that weak protections have allowed too many of them to slip away without a fight.
"That's why we're drawing a line so that developers have to prove there's genuinely no way to save a pub before they can even think about knocking it down, because building the homes we desperately need should never come at the cost of the pubs we love."
Housing target and reaction
The new NPPF system will also see thousands more homes built near railway stations. Ms Rayner said the shift to a "default yes" to developments around stations in England would help "tackle the housing crisis and raise living standards".
The change comes with the Government just over a quarter of the way to its target of building 1.5 million homes in England after two years of the five-year parliament. Under the new framework, there will be default approval for homes built within "reasonable walking distance of well-connected stations".
Ms Rayner added: "A safe, secure home is the foundation of opportunity, but too many people are being priced out of the communities where they want to live and work."
Under the new system, Sport England will continue to advise on "significant" cases, and the Gardens Trust and Theatres Trust will only be notified about relevant applications. The latest estimate is that 392,400 net additional homes had been delivered in England between July 2024, when Labour came into office, and June 14 this year.
Around 600,000 new homes would need to have been added in the first two years to keep pace with the 1.5 million target over five years, although ministers are hopeful that planning reforms will speed up delivery in the coming years.
The Gardens Trust said it was "devastating news" that the organisation would no longer be a statutory consultee, warning it will put parks at risk. Trust chairman John Watkins said: "This devalues these special places and makes them vulnerable to poorly informed development."
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said Labour was "failing abysmally" to meet the 1.5 million homes target. "To try to fix their own mess, Labour are planning a power grab, seizing control from local communities and forcing them to accept development in the wrong areas because Labour won't build in the right areas," he said.
Sir James said Mr Burnham "is going to overrule councils on green belt development and launch a new campaign of garden grabbing". Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice said: "These reforms are in direct contradiction of Andy Burnham's devolution agenda. Far from empowering local councils who actually know their communities, they strip power from the people who live there and hand it to Whitehall so ministers can ram through major housing developments while sidelining residents and ignoring the infrastructure that already can't cope."
