Government ‘will not renege’ on building safety commitments amid planning deregulation, chancellor says

The chancellor also announced that objections raised by the Environment Agency to building thousands of new homes around Cambridge have been lifted.

The development could see 4,500 homes built at the Waterbeach development, in addition to new schools, leisure facilities and office space, Ms Reeves said.

The move is part of fresh plans to deliver the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, which the government hopes will boost the UK economy by up to £78bn by 2035.

The objections have been removed thanks to the government “working closely with councils and regulators to find creative solutions to unlock growth and address environmental pressures”, Labour said.

Ms Reeves said the length of time taken over planning permission was “ridiculous” and referred to the £100m tunnel built in the construction of HS2 to protect bats.

“I have been genuinely shocked about how slow our planning system is, by how long it takes to get things done,” she said.

Ms Reeves vowed to go “further and faster” to deliver Labour’s plans for economic growth, including reviewing the Green Book – the government’s guidance on how to appraise policies and projects.

“For too long, we have accepted low expectations, accepted stagnation and accepted the risk of decline. We can do so much better,” the chancellor said. “Low growth is not our destiny. But growth will not come without a fight.”

Other announcements included support for a third runway at Heathrow, £7.9bn in funding for water companies over the next five years to improve water infrastructure and build nine new reservoirs, and funding for better transport links in the area.

Ms Reeves said: “There is no way to commute directly from towns like Bedford and Milton Keynes to Cambridge by rail. And there is a lack of affordable housing right across the region.”

“In other words, the demand is there but there are far too many supply-side constraints on economic growth.”

The aim, Ms Reeves said, is to create “Europe’s Silicon Valley” by uniting the two cities more closely and fostering technological innovation.

Earlier this week, Ms Reeves revealed plans to unlock “untapped” land near commuter train stations in a bid to build more homes for “working people”.

In an interview with The Guardian, she said a “zoning scheme” that favours development in those areas would form part of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

In her speech today, Ms Reeves reiterated these plans. “We will introduce a new approach to planning decisions on land around stations, changing the default answer to ‘yes’,” she said. 

Amanda Williams, chief investment officer at Aster Group, said the news was a “positive example” of the UK thinking innovatively about how to improve housing delivery. 

“But it’s important to make sure affordable homes are baked into these plans – particularly when we know demand is so acute,” Ms Williams said.

“We know from experience that brownfield sites can prove to be more costly and complex to remediate, so viability challenges could make committing to delivering affordable homes even harder.”

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is due to be introduced in the spring.