Rayner wages war on ‘Nimby’ councils by forcing prisons on green belt land ‘bigger than the whole of Surrey’

MoJ officials will instead submit plans directly to the planning inspectorate, which comes under the remit of Rayner’s housing ministry, and could be given go-aheads for their projects in as little as 16 weeks.

Rayner is also expected to announce that she plans to make it easier to build data centres – large warehouses full of computer equipment – on the green belt by declaring them “Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects”.

Rayner’s plans represent the biggest loosening of planning rules in decades – but campaigners have warned that ‘nothing is safe’

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The Deputy Prime Minister has already declared that Nimbys (Not In My Back Yard-ers) will “no longer have the upper hand” – and has green-lit the demolition of an historic building in central London despite stern pressure from conservationists.

And the amount of green belt land which Labour has ring-fenced for housebuilding is bigger than Surrey, The Times reported.

Her plans represent the biggest loosening of planning rules in decades – but campaigners have warned that “nothing is safe” as a result.

They’re expected to include expanding the definition of “low quality” green belt land – which could lead to 100,000 homes a year being built on land that was previously protected.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, announcing the new prisons scheme, said: “Part of our plan for change, this capacity strategy, alongside an independent review of sentencing policy, will keep our streets safe and ensure no Government runs out of prison places again.”

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The Justice Secretary has vowed the new scheme ‘will keep our streets safe’

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Despite the MoJ’s pledges, Labour’s new prisons have already been met with fierce opposition from neighbours.

Rayner approved a super-prison in the green belt in Lancashire despite objections from locals that prisoners would outnumber villagers.

Meanwhile, three more super-prisons, each housing 1,500-1,700 criminals, have been given the go-ahead in rural Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire and Yorkshire.

And elsewhere, planning regulations for onshore wind farms are also expected to be eased, while councils will be given powers to build in the countryside on a newly-defined “grey belt” to meet Labour’s housing targets and create new infrastructure.

Under the new laws, the Ministry of Justice will report to anti-Nimby Angela Rayner

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But Rosie Pearson, the co-founder of the Community Planning Alliance, said: “The green belt will not be safe, whatever caveats the Government say they have put in place.

“It’s housing, data centres, solar farms, prisons… soon it’ll be pylons. It is literally bulldozing through red tape and bulldozing through nature and democracy.”

The MoJ will also buy land for new prisons if they are needed. Officials said that the previous Government failed to secured any new land in the last decade – as a result, there are no new uncommitted sites for jails in the pipeline.

“This Government has an ambition to secure new land in readiness should further prison builds be required in future,” one source told The Telegraph.

“Buying new land could allow us to capitalise on planning reforms, to start to build new prisons faster.”