Builders, not blockers : A King’s Speech for Growth

Since Rachel Reeves’ spine tingling speech just days into her new role, the development industry – and local authorities – have been holding their breath to see how the drive for new development will be implemented, and if the warm words will be backed by actions.  

For Labour, getting the economy growing is not just one of its missions, it is central to its whole project. Without economic growth, taxes will have to rise and public services will stagnate, something Labour would expect voters to react strongly to at the next General Election. In her first speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves has made it very clear that development is the central plank to achieving growth in the economy in the short to medium term. On this basis alone, she cannot afford for the development industry, and the investors sitting behind them, to be in any doubt whatsoever that the Government is standing with them.  

The initial signs have been good. Stalled solar farms stuck in the system have been permitted, the ban on onshore wind development overturned, data centre projects given the go ahead (with new national policy), and a promise has been made to reshape the National Planning Policy Framework to make housing targets mandatory again. But until now, the changes have been ethereal and the authority and policy with which the assertions have been made has been unclear. As a result, there has been at least one council that has written an open letter to Angela Rayner asking whether their “unique” constraints mean they will not have to meet a mandatory target (no doubt a precursor to blaming the Government for the number of homes they will need to build in future). So have no doubt, the contents of the King’s Speech are hugely important for the industry.  

So, what did the speech actually contain, and what does it mean?  

King Charles III, speaking for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, spoke of the need to “prioritise wealth creation for all communities” and to “get Britain building”, all as part of plans to “encourage sustainable growth”.  

This included:  

• A Planning and Infrastructure Bill – which will “accelerate” the delivery of “high quality infrastructure and housing”.  The Bill will:  

• Streamline the deliver process for critical infrastructure, particularly noting energy projects, and seeking to create more certainty 

• Improve local decision making by modernising planning committees (more on this below)  

• Increasing capacity at local planning authorities  

• Using development to fund nature recovery – potentially another cost for development to bear 

• New legislation to allow local authorities “to take control of local bus services”* 

• An English Devolution Bill which will give local mayor more powers and which will support local growth plans, and could include planning (read the MHCLG press release here)

Not included in the speech itself but widely pre-briefed to the media were the need to make housing targets mandatory and for a new requirement or local authorities to identify regional infrastructure requirements.  

But hidden in the background notes published alongside the speech, was the commitment to “modernise planning committees”. This seemingly bland statement could mean anything from making them digitally more accessible, through to changing the way decisions are made. If the latter there are some precedents we could draw from, for instance, in Australia, voting members of the planning committee include councillors as well as development industry professionals (planners, architects etc). This has brought a different view point to those committees, with people on hand with the skills and experience to interrogate schemes from a technical standpoint, and without the immediate pressure of a need to represent existing voters in an area. This would be revolutionary but we will have to wait to find out more.  

With these announcements the development sector and investors now have more certainty about what the playing field looks like – and local planning authorities will have to take note. There is no room left for doubt.  

As ever, there is more detail yet to come but the intent is very clear. This package lays the foundations for development – and particularly energy and housebuilding sectors – to have more confidence.  

There remain many challenges to achieving Labour’s aspirations, including but not limited to: getting through the planning process when so many planning authorities and Statutory Consultees are resource limited; the viability of delivering all the infrastructure and affordable housing commitments; the need to actually put in place a new wave of Local Plans; the willingness of councillors to agree new housing allocations and applications; and, if you get through all of that, the availability of builders on site. Easy!  

Of course, Cratus Group is here to help you to navigate your way through the politics and to engage with the local community. Do get in touch to find out more.  

*Local authorities are not legally able to layout bus routes or start their own bus companies making linking development extremely hard – listen to Cllr Peter Marland, Leader of Milton Keynes on the subject on our Meet the Leader Podcast here.