Both Labour and the Council for the Protection of Rural England hit out after the prime minister used a speech in the West Midlands to set out “the most radical reforms of our planning system since the end of the second world war.”

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Under new rules, existing commercial premises including empty shops can be converted into residential housing without the need for permission, and local councils’ role in the planning system will be cut back.

As well as allowing more shops to be turned into homes in city centres, the changes will allow retail premises to be turned permanently into cafes or offices without a planning application or local authority approval.

Pubs, libraries, village shops and other categories essential to the lifeblood of communities will not be covered by the new “flexibilities” to Planning Use Orders.

Builders will no longer need a normal planning application to demolish and rebuild vacant and redundant residential and commercial buildings if they are rebuilt as homes.

Property owners will also be able to build additional space above their properties via a fast track approval process, subject to neighbour consultation.

The government argues that the changes, which are planned to come into effect by September, will both support the high street by allowing empty commercial properties to be quickly repurposed and also reduce the pressure to build on green field land.

In his speech, Johnson said “we are more slow” in housebuilding than in Germany or the Netherlands.

He said: “Covid has taught us the cost of delay. Why are we so slow at building homes by comparison with other European countries? In 2018 we built 2.25 homes per 1000 people. Germany managed 3.6, the Netherlands 3.8, France 6.8.

“I tell you why – because time is money, and the newt-counting delays in our system are a massive drag on the productivity and the prosperity of this country and so we will build better and build greener but we will also build faster.”

The “newt-counting” remark appeared to be a reference to some housebuilding plans being delayed by wildlife habitat reviews.

Asked if he was prepared to take on ‘Nimby’ opponents of his planning changes, the PM replied: “Yes I can imagine there will be some people who want to object to this or that, but there always are. This country took 35 years to get Crossrail done. We need pace.”

But Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire said that the “land grab” away from councils and affordable homes towards developers could harm rather than help the struggling high street.

Affordable homes are typically added to developments so they comply with local planning regulations, but where councils no longer have a say over whether developments go ahead there is little incentive for this to continue.

A joint report by charity Shelter and estate agent Savills today warned that just 4,300 social homes were set to be built annually as the country recovered from coronavirus – not even enough to clear the waiting list in Wakefield, never mind nationwide.

And the reforms were all the more stark in the light of the Westferry “cash for favours” planning scandal involving housing secretary Robert Jenrick and tycoon Richard Desmond.

“The arrogance of Robert ‘three-homes’ Jenrick proposing a roll-out of ill-adapted rabbit hutches is staggering – permitted development has been shown to be a failure and this is just another example of the Tories doing favours for their property developer mates,” the shadow housing secretary said.

“Meanwhile, our climate change targets are urgent, and there are millions of existing homes which need insulation and energy efficiency.”

Johnson revealed that a new “policy paper” would be produced next month setting out comprehensive reform of England’s seven-decade old planning system, “to introduce a new approach that works better for our modern economy and society”.

Tom Fyans, policy and campaigns director at CPRE, the countryside charity, said deregulating planning and cutting up red tape would not deliver better quality housing.

“Our research has shown that three quarters of large housing developments are mediocre or poor in terms of their design and should not have been granted planning permission. Transferring decision making power from local councils and communities and handing them to developers is the exact opposite of building back better,” he said.

“The best way to deliver the places that we need, at the pace we need them, is to make it easier for local councils to get local plans in place, and then to hold developers to those plans. We need to make sure the voices of local communities are strengthened in shaping the homes and places that they will inherit.”

Boris Johnson says he’ll tear up planning regulations in a bid to help Britain build its way out of the coronavirus crisis.

The Prime Minister will change the rules to allow commercial properties including office blocks to be converted into flats more easily.

But the move follows “horror stories” about tiny, cramped homes being created through office conversions – some less than 14 square metres.

Last year homelessness charity Shelter highlighted a property in Balham, South London – where a developer submitted an application to turn a two storey building into 26 ‘flats’.

Some of the homes shared an industrial skylight – but had no windows looking outwards.

Another building in Ilford was converted into 60 flats – with 42 of them described as “double studios” – but started at under 15 square metres.

And a converted block in Harlow was described as a “human warehouse” in a BBC report last year.

Changes to planning laws gave developers the power to turn offices into residential premises without seeking permission from local planning officers.

Unless there are demonstrable concerns about issues such as flooding or contamination, local councils have no power to stop them.

But the PM wants to make it even easier promising to “scythe through red tape and get things done.”

He added: “Time is money – and the newt-counting delays in our system are a massive drag on the productivity and and the prosperity of our country.”

In his speech, Mr Johnson announced more buildings will be allowed to be converted into residential properties without applying for planning permission.

Builders will no longer be required to seek permission to demolish and rebuild vacant buildings, as long as they are rebuilt as homes.

And property owners will be able to ‘fast track’ approval to build upwards, above their properties – subject to “neighbour consultation.”

Number 10 say the new rules are planned to be in place by September, and will require a change in the law.

Lib Dem leadership candidate Layla Moran said: “The Tories are creating the homes but driving out employment, which is perverse, and it just means you are getting terribly unbalanced development, yet again.”

Here’s what else he promised in his speech

He pledged £5bn on capital investment projects, supporting jobs and economic recovery this financial year.

In comparison, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced £640bn of gross capital investment in the UK’s roads, railways, schools, hospitals and power networks over the next five years at the Budget in March.

The furlough scheme has already cost £22.9bn and the three main Covid-19 loan schemes for businesses have already cost more than £40bn.

Breakdown of the £5bn promises in full

• ‘£1.5bn this year for hospital maintenance’ including to scrap mental health dorms and improve A&E capacity.
• ‘£100m this year for 29 road network projects’ including bridge repairs in Sandwell, the A15 in the Humber and £10m for “development work” to unblock the Manchester rail bottleneck.
• £1bn to fund first 50 projects in a ten-year school rebuilding programme .
• ‘£560m and £200m for repairs and upgrades to schools and FE colleges respectively this year’.
• ‘£142m for digital upgrades and maintenance to around 100 courts this year’
• ‘£83m for maintenance of prisons’
• ‘£60m for temporary prison places’
• ‘£900m for a range of ‘shovel ready’ local growth projects in England over the course of this year and next’
• ‘£96m for the Towns Fund this year’ – between £500,000 to £1m for each of the 101 towns selected for town deals with £500k-£1m to spend on projects such as improvements to parks, high streets, and transport.
• ‘Further projects to be announced in due course’

What have we yet to hear about?

Lots.

The £5bn is only a fraction of what the Government has said it wants to invest in infrastructure over the course of this Parliament.

There is little so far on planning and house-building – although we expect to hear more on this on Tuesday.

There is an urgent need for more focus on employment.

What about jobs?

With unemployment at a its highest level in a generation and the UK suffering the worst economic hit of all industrialised nations, it is essential the PM prioritises a plan for jobs.

It needs to include concrete action preventing further job losses and supporting future employment.

Labour leader Keir Starmer warned the country faced unemployment “the likes of which we haven’t seen for a generation” unless the Government acted urgently.

He called on the PM to introduce an emergency July budget as part of its “duty” to the thousands of people who have already lost their jobs amid the crisis.

Is it enough?

It’s an important start but many will argue that the £5bn doesn’t go far enough.

Of the money announced, £1bn has already been allocated to a ten-year schools rebuilding programme.

But the first projects will only start spadework in September 2021 and headteachers warn that there is a £6.7bn repairs backlog in England.

Another £1.5billion to be allocated this year to hospital maintenance – even though official figures suggest more than four times that is needed.

The PM may have more announcements up his sleeve but if not, critics will argue that he has failed to understand the size and the scale of the targeted investment needed at this pivotal moment.

Is he the modern-day FDR?

Not really.

As well as stimulating the economy after the Great Depression, FDR rewrote the economic rules of the US.

The PM is not expected to set out a new approach to managing the British economy or to abandon the fixation with endless growth in favour of focusing on health and well-being.

St Ives, along with areas in Falmouth and Truro, are just some of the locations introducing new measures ahead of the holiday season.

Falmouth has already closed a number of streets in the busy town centre for a set number of hours since June 15, along with Truro, following the announcement that non-essential shops could open.

Truro Mayor Bert Biscoe said he hoped that it would allow locals to return as well as “encourage others to come,” according to the Telegraph.

Closing the roads will allow visitors more room to visit the region, with many of the small towns having narrow pathways and thin streets which often become overcrowded during peak holiday seasons.

St Ives looks to be the next tourist town to follow in their footsteps, after new plans introduced by the town council to stop road traffic between 11am and 4pm from today.

The road closures will be marshalled, while permits will be issued for certain cases and emergency services can continue to drive through. Deliveries will have to operate at the beginning or end of the day.

St Ives Town Council and the St Ives Business Improvement District (BID) Helen Tripconey told local media that the measures were “temporary” until things returned to normal.

Ron Johns, who owns a bookshop in St Ives, said he had “no idea” it it would work but was needed as the “streets are very narrow in Cornwall”.

It comes after Boris Johnson announced that Britain’s 2m social distancing rule would be reduced to 1m+ in places where 2m was not possible.

Locals fear that without the new measures, a situation similar to Bournemouth beach could happen.

Last week, tens of thousands of Brits descended to Bournemouth as temperatures soured, with little social distancing and tons of litter left behind.

Roads were blocked and emergency services were unable to get through to the beach after a major alert was declared.

Visit Cornwall’s Malcom Bell said they were “fully in support of traffic restrictions” across the region, adding: “It provides a step change in the space available for local and visitors to access and enjoy our wonderful towns.”

Other areas in the UK such as Norfolk, Oxford, Cambridge and Whitby are also looking at closing a number of roads in the busy towns and cities as well.

Mr Bell previously said that Cornwall would allow tourists to social distance due to the large number of beaches compared to the rest of the country.

He said, according to Cornwall Live: “We are in a fortunate position due to our location, with the number of beaches we’ve got and with the right information we should avoid the Brighton, Southend and Bournemouth problem, which is sheer volume and lack of beaches.”

A holiday to Cornwall is likely to be very different compared to previous years, he added.

Members from ‘Plastic Free Exmouth‘ (PFE), as well as independent volunteers, all clubbed together in order to remove the waste that had been discarded along the seafront following the busy crowds which gathered in Exmouth last week.

Following the discovery of human faeces, PFE member Lucy Oakes-Ash, 33 said: “If you know you are going out to the beach for the day and there is no toilets, take a doggy bag and dispose of it. There is no excuse.”

East Devon District Council (EDDC) who are regularly emptying the bins were also present at Orcombe Point.

Lucy said: “This all came about following the warm weather which encouraged people to go to the beach.

“People from the Plastic Free Exmouth team went down on Friday morning (June 26) originally.

“They cleaned up huge volumes of rubbish and waste, the Council were also there, they’re doing a great job.”

Non-profit organisation, Plastic Free Exmouth, is an active group who work with Exmouth Council, businesses, schools, and individuals to gain certification for a Plastic Free Community with Surfers Against Sewage.

Following their beach clean on Friday, the group posted images and details of their discoveries onto social media which generated a huge response.

The organisation then arranged another beach clean which was to take place on Sunday, June 28, at around 7:30am.

Lucy adds: “The David Attenborough effect had been reduced but this bought it back into the public eye.

“A group of us met yesterday (June 28) completely independent of one another.”

With many members of the team conducting the clean on the beach itself, Lucy decided to venture into the shrubbery behind the beach to see if there was anything buried in the trees and so on.

She said: “The main thing we found was bottles and cans.

“Both of those things are so easily recyclable. You could see they had been so obviously thrown into the hedge.”

Despite much of the waste being relatively new, Lucy stresses that a large number of the bottles, cans and so forth had been there for quite some time.

She adds: “When some people blame the youths of today throwing their rubbish away, this wasn’t new stuff we were finding.

“We had to basically dig one bottle out as it had been buried for quite some time.”

However, the worst discovery was yet to come for Lucy.

As she made her way up the “zig zag” path behind the beach, Lucy checked behind one of the benches to see if anything had been discarded only to discover a “whole load of used tampons.”

“It made me feel very sick.

“We safely removed them using gloves, a litter picker and bags.”

On top of this, the volunteers discovered human poo which had been dumped in the hedges behind the bins at Orcombe Point.

Lucy adds: “It looked relatively fresh.

“The toilets are open by the Lifeboat Station which are only around 200 yards away.

“I have two young children and when they tell me they need to go to the loo whilst on the beach we walk that little bit further in order to use the facilities.

“There is no excuse in my mind.”

Despite the heaps of litter that have been dumped along Exmouth seafront over the last week, Lucy adds: “The Council have been doing an amazing job the whole way through.

Plastic Free Exmouth have now arranged in informal beach clean which is due to take place every Sunday morning at 7:30am.

“We don’t want Exmouth painted in a bad light, it’s an absolutely beautiful beach.

“If we make this informal beach clean a regular thing we will stay on top of it and keep it as pristine and beautiful as possible.”

For those who wish to join in on the Sunday Morning beach clean, must ensure that they arrive at Orcombe Point with all of the appropriate equipment such as a litter picker, gloves, and bags (reusable if possible).

For further information visit Plastic Free Exmouth here.

Cllr Stuart Hughes is calling for bylaws following numerous complaints he has received from local residents who have been “appalled at the behaviour of young people who have been congregating there [Clifton Beach] during the heatwave.”

It is understood that up to 100 people have been gathering with small portable BBQ’s as well as lighting fires along the beach.

Cllr Stuart Hughes said: “The complaints I’ve received have expressed concerns over the behaviour and foul language from some of those gathered on the beach.

“They have also been lining empty bottles up and throwing stones smashing them which is also a potential hazard for children and other beach users.

“I contacted Alison Hernandez and asked if the police could keep a watchful eye on what’s happening, however I know they are stretched especially with lockdown being relaxed.

“I am therefore asking East Devon to see if bylaws can be fast tracked to prevent drinking and use of loud beat box radios along with a dedicated area being introduced for BBQ’s.”

The Councillor adds: “With hotels reopening [at a later date], need to show Sidmouth in its best light.

“As we come out of lockdown it’s important that we do everything we can to kick start the local economy.

“Unfortunately, the type of recent behaviour does nothing for our image.”