Metro mayors in England are set to gain new powers over planning applications of strategic importance, with ministers opening a consultation that could let them take a bigger role in schemes of more than 150 homes.
The fresh development is the publication of the consultation itself on 24 August, moving the issue from political signalling into a live implementation process. It covers mayoral powers over major planning applications, Mayoral Development Orders and a Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy outside London.
Supply policy is now shifting from broad promises about more homes into changes that could affect where large schemes actually get approved. If mayors can move stalled or politically sensitive developments faster, that could change future rental competition in some city regions and commuter belts.
Consultation opens on new mayoral planning tools
The government says the consultation seeks views on how powers in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 should be implemented. The core proposal is that mayors outside London would get a formal role in planning applications considered to be of strategic importance.
The consultation also covers Mayoral Development Orders, which could allow permissions to be set in advance for some types of scheme, and a Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy outside London. In plain terms, ministers are trying to give devolved leaders more direct influence over larger housing-led developments.
The official consultation on planning powers for mayors in England was published on 24 August and applies to England.
Why landlords should watch housing delivery, not just the politics
The landlord angle is not that buy-to-let investors suddenly gain a new planning route. It is that a stronger mayoral hand could alter housing supply patterns in places where local councils have been slow, fragmented or openly resistant to larger schemes.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s coverage of ministers fast-tracking homes near stations, which showed the government leaning harder into planning reform as a supply tool. The new consultation adds a second layer: more power for regional political leaders, not just central changes to national policy.
Landlord Knowledge has also reported on Steve Reed’s push for new homes over subsidising buy-to-let, which made clear that ministers see fresh supply as the answer to both affordability and private rented sector pressure. The mayoral consultation fits that same direction of travel.
The practical reading for landlords is mixed. In the short run, more planning powers do not solve delivery delays, viability disputes or build-out speeds. In the longer run, though, areas that start unlocking more large schemes could see slower rent growth than places where supply remains stuck.
There is also a more contrarian point. If new powers simply shift arguments from councils to mayors without speeding up decisions on the ground, landlords may hear a lot more about reform before they see any real supply effect. That gap between announcement and delivery is still where many housing policies get bogged down.
What this means for landlords
- If you invest in city regions: watch which mayoral areas start using these powers most aggressively, because future supply pressure may not be even across England.
- Watch for: whether the final rules really speed up approvals for large schemes or just add another decision-maker.
- If your strategy relies on chronic undersupply: planning reform in high-demand areas is a risk worth pricing in now.
- Bottom line: this is a supply story first, but landlords should treat any serious change to large-site planning as future competition risk in at least some local markets.
Editor’s view
Planning reform only matters when it changes actual delivery. Still, this is one of the clearer signs yet that ministers want mayors to become housing enforcers as well as local figureheads, and landlords would be wise not to ignore that.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 25 August 2026
Sources: GOV.UK, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Related reading: Government fast-tracks homes near stations in planning rewrite
