BLOGS

A new layer of planning authority is opening up

On 24 August 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government opened a six-week consultation on extending call-in powers to mayors across England, running until 5 October 2026. Building on the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, the proposals would give elected mayors in 13 strategic authorities outside London — including Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and the North East — powers modelled closely on those the Mayor of London has held since 2000.

The headline thresholds under consideration are schemes of more than 150 homes, commercial floorspace above 15,000 sqm, or buildings taller than 30 metres (roughly 8-10 storeys). Any one of these criteria is enough to bring a scheme into scope for mayoral call-in, sitting alongside a related power to direct a council to refuse an application outright. London itself is consulting separately on lowering its own threshold from 150 homes to just 50 — a meaningful tightening that would pull a far larger share of mid-sized residential schemes into City Hall's orbit.

Ten of England's 14 devolved mayors have already indicated support for the wider proposals. For institutional developers, lenders and investors, this is not a procedural footnote. It changes who has the final say on schemes that anchor GDV assumptions, financing timelines and site acquisition decisions in every major English city outside the capital.

Which schemes are most likely to be affected

The thresholds are deliberately calibrated to catch strategic, not routine, development. In practice, that means:

• Large multi-phase residential schemes — 150+ units is a common size for urban regeneration sites, former industrial land and suburban extensions, particularly in city-region markets where land assembly favours bigger plots.

• Tall buildings in city centres — the 30-metre threshold is especially relevant to Manchester and Liverpool, where mid-rise and tall residential towers are central to current pipeline activity.

• Mixed-use and commercial-led schemes — the 15,000 sqm floorspace test pulls in large mixed-use regeneration projects that combine residential, retail and office space.

• Cross-boundary and stalled sites — schemes that straddle multiple local authority areas, or that have faced repeated delay or refusal at committee level, are the most likely candidates for mayoral intervention under the direction-to-refuse and call-in mechanisms.

A related change is already partly in effect: since March 2026, a Town and Country Planning Consultation Direction has required local planning authorities to notify the Secretary of State before refusing any housing scheme of 150 or more homes, effectively giving central government first sight of the refusal itself. Mayoral call-in extends a similar logic to city-region level, layering a second escalation route between council committees and Whitehall.

What London's track record tells us about outcomes

London offers the closest real-world precedent, and the data is instructive rather than unambiguously reassuring. Major applications determined under the Mayor of London's existing call-in powers have averaged around ten months from submission to decision — respectable relative to many borough timelines, but still short of statutory targets.

REalyse planning data shows a persistent gap in scale and approval efficiency between London and the city-regions now in line for these powers. Greater London's major-scheme pipeline (50+ units) runs to over 685,000 residential units, with an average scheme size approaching 390 units and an approval rate around 96%. Greater Manchester and the West Midlands follow with pipelines of roughly 339,000 and 337,000 units respectively, but average scheme sizes are notably smaller — in the 220-250 unit range. Tees Valley, at the other end of the scale with around 54,000 units in its pipeline, currently records the lowest approval rate among the group, more than 11 percentage points behind London.

This gap suggests two decades of strategic planning experience in City Hall may correlate with the ability to bring larger, more complex schemes through to consent — not simply a function of demand or land supply. Whether the new mayoral authorities can close that gap will depend heavily on how quickly they build planning capacity of a similar depth, since shifting authority upward does not automatically compress timelines; it adds coordination between mayoral offices — typically smaller and less resourced than the Greater London Authority — and dozens of constituent local planning authorities.

What this means for underwriting and portfolio strategy

For institutional players, the practical takeaway is to start treating mayoral geography as a live underwriting variable rather than a background policy detail. Three implications stand out:

• Approval risk is becoming less binary. A scheme that stalls or is refused at council committee level may now have a credible secondary route to consent via mayoral call-in, particularly where it aligns with regional Spatial Development Strategies, transport connectivity and housing delivery targets. Credit and risk teams should factor this into how they price refusal risk on qualifying schemes.

• Location within transport catchments matters more. Sites in strong transport catchments within established or soon-to-be-established mayoral areas are likely to see the fastest, and most closely scrutinised, path to consent as implementation firms up through 2026 and 2027.

• Comparable-led analysis becomes more important, not less. As decision-making shifts to a newer, less-tested tier of authority, robust comparables on achieved prices, rents, yields and absorption near similar transport-linked schemes will be essential for underwriting confidence — particularly in city-regions where track records on strategic-scale decisions are still being established.

Outlook

The direction of travel is unambiguous: decision-making on strategic housing sites in England is moving away from individual council planning committees and towards regional mayors, with central government retaining a backstop role. Whether that translates into faster, more predictable delivery — rather than simply a new layer of escalation — will depend on how quickly combined authorities build the planning capacity that London's Mayor has had over two decades to develop.

The consultation closes on 5 October 2026, with government aiming to have call-in powers and Mayoral Development Orders operative by early 2027. For developers, lenders and investors, the sensible move now is to start mapping pipeline and land positions against the emerging mayoral geography — before thresholds, procedures and Community Infrastructure Levy arrangements are finalised.