Reeves thinks big on planning and growth with housebuilding project
Reeves thinks big on planning and growth with housebuilding project
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Chancellor to apply ‘zoning scheme’ around commuter train stations to boost fragile UK economy and encourage investment. 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.
