Housebuilders will be handed swifter access to build new homes around England’s commuter train stations under the latest government plans to foster a building boom.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Observer she would ensure a “presumption in favour of building” in areas that would give households easy access to urban centres, and businesses a greater choice of potential workers. It comes after a flurry of pro-growth announcements and ahead of a major speech by Reeves this week in which she is expected to again signal a willingness to take politically difficult decisions in order to boost Britain’s fragile economy.
She said a “zoning scheme”, in which the presumption would be in favour of development in key areas such as those around train stations, would be part of reforms in the forthcoming planning and infrastructure bill – a huge piece of legislation on which many of Labour’s growth plans rest. It will be a crucial factor in whether it can achieve its goal of building 1.5m new homes over five years and making 150 decisions on major infrastructure projects.
“It’s about speeding things up, making a presumption in favour of building – and in this case building housing and saying that these are exactly the sorts of places you want housing,” she said. “We’re saying if it’s around a commuter train station, we want that development to happen.
“At the moment, you’ve got people who live five or six miles out of Leeds or Birmingham or Manchester who aren’t able to take up jobs in those places. So the idea of building around train stations is saying it’s not just a home – it’s a home with access to good jobs paying decent wages.”
She and Keir Starmer have spent a week in frantic activity on their growth plans, including changing environmental protection rules, clamping down on judicial reviews and consulting fewer groups on major infrastructure projects.
It has been widely seen in Westminster as a political fightback following criticisms that the government had yet to demonstrate how it was going to foster the growth that Starmer has made his priority. This has also become imperative as the state of the public finances worsens thanks to rising borrowing costs.
Reeves argued that, taken as a package, the planning reforms represented a sweeping overhaul that would move the dial. “You add it all up,” she said. “Make it easier to build around train stations. Create a nature restoration fund so that not every development has to be nature-neutral. Reduce the number of judicial reviews and the number of consultees for major infrastructure projects.
“Add those things up, and what this is about is saying to investors and developers: ‘Take a look again at investing in Britain. We’re making it easier for you to get things done here.”’
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She said the drive to build around commuter stations had been inspired by work done by Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who has sanctioned the building of 3,000 homes around a transport hub that lies eight minutes by rail from Manchester. He used his mayoral powers to help the scheme through, but Reeves wants to create a similar bias in favour of appropriate projects everywhere.
However, environmental and green groups are awaiting the detail in the forthcoming bill closely, and many Labour MPs fear a clash. Reeves’s speech this week is set to include a provocative endorsement of the expansion of Heathrow airport.
Several major housebuilders welcomed the new measures announced by the chancellor. Sam Richards, head of the pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, said the plans represented “a gear change” from the government.
Jennie Daly, head of residential developer Taylor Wimpey, said industry figures “continue to be impressed by the speed with which the government has gripped the need for planning reform”.
