Fine words from Reeves – now let’s get Britain building
Rachel Reeves is right to make reforming our sclerotic planning system the centrepiece of her economic strategy. But if she’s going to succeed she must consign the bat tunnels and fish discos that too often block development to the dustbin of history, says Sam Richards
In 2014 winter sports fans were getting ready for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Let it Go from the Disney phenomenon Frozen was driving parents across the world crazy.
And everyone was doing the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money for ALS research.
That was also the last time, excluding the post-pandemic rebound, the British economy grew by more than 3 per cent.
Standing in Oxfordshire this morning Chancellor Rachel Reeves could only dream of growth hitting the heady-heights last achieved by her predecessor George Osborne.
Growth is flatlining, commentators talk of stagnation and stagflation – and global economic forecasts predict modest growth, averaging just 1.4 per cent for this year.
After days of speculation, she committed the government to a third runway at Heathrow in order to spur growth. Understandably this is getting a lot of attention, but her speech offered far more.
Reeves is not the only Chancellor who has gone on a hunt for growth. But she is the first Chancellor to make overhauling Britain’s creaking and sclerotic planning system the centrepiece of her economic strategy.
She is absolutely right to argue that by making it easier to build the new homes, clean energy infrastructure and transport links we desperately need we can both get richer and reach net zero carbon emissions.
In towns and cities across the country land around major transport stations is significantly underused for housing development.
In Britain Remade’s report Get London Building we showed how 325,000 good homes could be unlocked within walking distance of public transport in the capital, bringing affordable housing to working people who are being priced out.
Say yes
Shifting to a default ‘yes’ for good quality development near commuter stations also has the potential to unlock new towns across the country. This is essential if the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor announced yesterday by Reeves is to achieve its full potential.
Her commitment to the new rail line between Oxford and Cambridge will boost growth along the arc, but it’s essential that transport investment is brought together with the government’s commitment to new towns. Doing so would be game-changing.
Take Winslow in Buckinghamshire. Thanks to this £6bn transport infrastructure scheme, this market town will have a rail connection to the national rail network for the first time in 57 years, giving local people easy access to well-paying jobs in Oxford.
But Winslow won’t be able to make the most of the new railway connection because there’s no homes for people to live in to the north of the station. The town is completely built on one side of the railway line, as is often the case.
For improved transport infrastructure like East-West rail to play a part in turbo-charging the economy and spurring growth it must be used to allow towns like Winslow to expand. The best way of doing this is mirroring what is already there.
For improved transport infrastructure to play a part in turbo-charging the economy and spurring growth it must be used to allow towns to expand.
The new Oxford-Cambridge arc will also fail if we don’t get a grip of our water supply. It is astonishing that Britain has not built a reservoir for just over 30 years. Reservoirs may not be sexy pieces of infrastructure; ministers will rarely get as excited by giving them the green light as they might by giving the go ahead to a new hospital, aircraft carrier or clean energy project. But, without them towns and cities cannot grow and we cannot prosper. Reeves should be congratulated for recognising their importance to growth and finally building the new reservoirs we need.
As important as investing in our railways is, we need more than this to deliver growth, which is why announcements on our road network were also welcome.
The need for the Lower Thames Crossing is undeniable. The Dartford Crossing is at capacity; designed to carry 135,000 vehicles, it now handles 180,000 vehicles on its busiest days. Yet delivery of the project, first proposed in the late 2000’s, has been waylaid by our dysfunctional planning system.
Beset with delay after delay from ministers almost £300m has been spent on the planning application alone, which in itself is the longest planning submission in British history totalling 359,866 pages across 2,383 separate documents.
With Reeves now supporting the plans, hopefully the application, which is still sitting on the transport secretary’s desk, will be given the green light sooner rather than later.
The shift from Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) to Environmental Outcome Reports announced before the speech is also long overdue. EIAs have ballooned out of all proportion while doing nothing to reverse Britain’s declining biodiversity indicators.
One wind farm’s environmental statement ended up longer than the complete works of Tolstoy and Proust combined.
One wind farm’s environmental statement ended up longer than the complete works of Tolstoy and Proust combined
And people wonder why it takes up to 13 years for a new offshore wind farm to go from idea to generating clean electricity when building the actual turbines only takes two years.
The government should also be praised for taking action to reform the system of statutory consultees, something I led a review on for the previous government.
The large network of statutory consultees that has steadily built up over decades too often creates uncertainty for developers, encourages consultees to behave like lobbyists for their pet interests, and delays or prevents building the new homes, transport links and clean energy sources we desperately need.
I hope my review will now be published and implemented in full so that further blocks can be removed from the planning system.
Government alone cannot deliver growth, but government can bulldoze through the blockages. The test now for Reeves and Co is delivering a Planning and Infrastructure Bill that consigns wasteful bat tunnels and fish discos to the dustbin of history.
Sam Richards is CEO of Britain Remade