Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled a raft of planning reforms in a bid to “get Britain building again” in her first major speech at the Treasury.
Britain’s first female Chancellor addressed cabinet colleagues and the media from 1 Horse Guards Road on Whitehall, as she vowed: “After 14 years, Britain is open for business.
“In an uncertain world, Britain is a place to do business.”
Reeves said her work on planning reform, in a bid to deliver Labour’s promised 1.5m homes in five years, alongside deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayer, was already “underway”.
She said: “I am taking immediate action to deliver this Labour government’s mission to kickstart economic growth.”
The Chancellor said Labour will reform the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) by the end of the month, including restoring mandatory local housing targets; end the “absurd” ban on onshore wind in England; and prioritise energy projects in the planning system.
Reeves also said the government would “create a new taskforce to accelerate stalled housing sites in our country”, beginning with some 14,000 homes, and employ 300 new planning officers in local authorities, as outlined in the party’s manifesto.
Labour, she added, will also focus on the “benefit of development” when Rayner intervenes in planning decisions.
The deputy Prime Minister, Reeves added, has already recovered two planning appeals for data centres in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.
And the party will instigate a review of greenbelt boundaries to encourage building on so-called ‘grey belt’ or low quality greenbelt land – in another manifesto pledge.
“I know there will be opposition and I am not naive to that,” Reeves said. “We will not respond to a status quo that… relegates national interest below other priorities.
“This Labour government has been elected to get things done, to get Britain building again. We are going to get Britain building again, we are going to get Britain’s economy growing again.”