- author, Faisal Islam & Charlotte Edwards
- role, BBC News
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Finance Minister Rachel Reeves is expected to announce the reinstatement of mandatory housebuilding targets in her first speech as Treasury Minister.
Mr Reeves will later present business leaders at the Treasury with proposed reforms to overhaul England’s planning system as part of wider plans to boost economic growth.
He is also expected to say that political turmoil in France and the United States has made the UK once again one of the most stable places for international investment and that “the era of chaos and irresponsibility is over”.
She and her team spent the weekend preparing the speech, aimed at business leaders and investors who have seen investment into the UK stagnate in recent years due to post-Brexit political turmoil and Liz Truss’s government’s mini-budget.
Reeves is expected to announce immediate relaxations to planning red tape that have hindered the development of construction, infrastructure and energy grids.
This will be done in the hope that investors will unlock tens of billions of pounds of investment into green industry and housebuilding.
Treasury Secretary Darren Jones told the BBC’s Today programme the plan was a focus of Reeves’s maiden speech as Chancellor because it would boost growth and provide a “sustainable way of returning the public finances to good standing in the long term”.
He said he would lay out “immediate measures” to stimulate growth, alongside longer-term plans to “accelerate the development of critical infrastructure” such as energy, rail and homebuilding.
But the community can “participate in the planning process as normal,” he said.
“What we’re looking to do is address the inertia in the system, speed up decision-making and unlock the investment that we’ve been told is available so that we can drive growth.”
A moratorium on onshore wind power is expected to be lifted and extra funding will be made available for hundreds of new planners.
Mr Reeves told the BBC on Friday he was “prepared to fight” those who delayed or rejected housebuilding and infrastructure investment in the planning system.
On Monday morning she will tell business leaders: “Last week, the British people voted for change and over the past 72 hours I have set out to do the work necessary to deliver on that mission.”
“Our manifesto was clear: sustained economic growth is the only way to improve our prosperity and the living standards of our workers.”
“Where previous administrations have been unwilling to make the tough decisions, I will do it. This is now a national mission. There is no time to waste.”
The chancellor is also expected to argue, based on new Treasury analysis, that the UK economy is £140 billion smaller than it would be if it had grown at the same rate as other developed countries.
Mr Reeves is expected to add: “This could have provided £58 billion in extra tax revenue to maintain public services last year alone.”
“It’s up to the new government to repair the foundations.”
She is not yet scheduled to announce any new tax or spending measures.
Mr Reeves is due to meet with the Office for Budget Responsibility this week, ahead of a Budget and Spending Review in the autumn. He also met with the Governor of the Bank of England on Friday.
During the election campaign, Labour focused primarily on tackling the housing problem, promising to build 1.5 million homes in England in the next Parliament.
Supporters of mandatory housing construction targets argue that they are necessary to ensure that local governments build the required number of homes.
But opponents say this coercive approach has been tried unsuccessfully for decades and risks forcing development on greenfield land against the wishes of local residents.
Roger Mortlock, chief executive of countryside charity CPRE, said he would question whether green belt areas were the place to start building “as long as it’s an idea that still has significant public support”.
He told the BBC’s Today programme that CPRE would argue that towns and cities, where infrastructure is already in place, are the best places for housing.
“The idea that the Green Belt should remain untouched is [under] “The allegations made by the previous government are not true. Since 2009, between 60,000 and 10,000 homes have been built per year on brownfield land within the Green Belt,” he said.
“What they’re creating are car-dependent communities that cut holes in green spaces and too often provide nothing for the people who live there.”
