LONDON, Aug. 23 -- For decades, England's housing crisis has had a structural explanation that planners and ministers found politically inconvenient to address: local councils, elected by residents who prefer their own neighbourhoods unchanged, have held effective veto power over the large-scale development their cities most urgently need. The government is now trying to break that deadlock by handing planning authority to a different set of elected officials who campaigned on promises to build.

Mayors across England are to receive new "call-in" powers enabling them to take over planning applications with significant regional impact, the government announced, a move the administration says directly addresses why England has consistently ...