Planning reform: comment on the Chancellor's speech
The Chancellor's announcement to accelerate infrastructure development across the UK aims to boost economic growth and housing delivery. With new powers in the upcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the Government hopes to streamline planning decisions and reduce legal challenges. However, local opposition and stretched planning authorities may pose ongoing risks to delivering the new homes, offices, and factories expected alongside these infrastructure projects.
In an effort to ‘kickstart economic growth’ the Chancellor has announced that the Government will go ‘further and faster’ in supporting key infrastructure projects across the UK. Although many of these projects are to be financed via private sector funding, the Chancellor announced that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (expected in Spring) will pave the way for faster planning decisions and reduced risk of lengthy and costly legal challenges.
The Government’s support for infrastructure investment and delivery should be supported, with many of the schemes that were announced today likely designed to unlock housing delivery and support economic growth. These include the Government hopes that improved rail and road connectivity between Oxford and Cambridge will create ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’ and support the delivery of new towns along the route, such as at Tempsford where East-West Rail will connect with the East Coast Mainline.
While the Government has thrown its weight behind the delivery of key infrastructure projects across the country, and intends to use new powers to be introduced in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to speed up the delivery of new infrastructure, the risks remains that the delivery of the new homes, offices and factories that the Government hopes will pop up alongside the new infrastructure will continue to be held up by local opposition and overstretched local planning authorities.
We must therefore hope that the Government’s recent reforms to the planning system, and those further reforms to be brought forward through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, not only focus on speeding up the delivery of showpiece infrastructure projects, but also speeds up the delivery of those new homes, offices and factories that the Government expects the infrastructure will serve.