The government has announced plans to grant automatic planning permission on brownfield sites in its Housing and Planning Bill. Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said the bill marks the start of a national crusade to transform “generation rent into generation buy”.

Measures announced in the bill include automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites, designed to bring forward more land to build new homes quicker. Planning reforms to support small builders were also announced – placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land so 20,000 custom and self-built homes a year can be built by 2020.

Other measures included a new legal duty placed on councils to guarantee the provision of 200,000 Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites. These will be offered to first-time buyers at a 20% discount on market prices.

Euan Hall, CEO of the Land Trust said: “I find it is disappointing that the decision is not tacking the actual issue, which is to have a joined up approach to land use across the country. Relaxing the planning process is a short term win, and will have long term detrimental impacts on society.”