Rachel Reeves has promised to “get Britain building again” by bringing back compulsory housebuilding targets as part of a wide-ranging plan to reboot the UK economy.
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She and her team worked through the weekend on the speech to business leaders and investors who have held back on investment in Britain in recent years amid the political chaos of the post-Brexit years and the Liz Truss mini-budget.It is hoped her plans will unleash tens of billions of pounds of investment in green industry and housebuilding.
Ms Reeves made a pitch to investors who might have avoided the UK in recent years by promising stability.
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Speaking to business leaders at the Treasury, Ms Reeves said:
- Planning decisions for major infrastructure projects in Britain will be made nationally rather than locally in an attempt to stop important projects becoming tied up in years of red tape
- Green belt boundaries will be reviewed to prioritise brownfield and so-called “grey belt” land, which are poor-quality areas in the green belt such as disused car parks or areas of wasteland
- The transport and energy secretaries will prioritise decisions on infrastructure projects that have been “sitting unresolved for far too long”
- Additional planning officers will be recruited to speed up the planning process
- An assessment of the country’s public finances has been ordered and the results will be presented before parliament’s summer break, before a full Budget is held later in the year
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In the absence for now of a surge of public money, Labour will need the private sector to deliver its homebuilding plans.
“We need the private sector to build homes. We’re not going to be in the business of building those homes directly - we need the construction sector, the housebuilding sector to build those homes.” – Reeves
Can’t wait for more build-to-rent housing. I’m sure giving American real estate companies more free reign over our housing system is the thing that will bring rent/house prices down.