Rachel Reeves to confirm changes to ‘outdated’ planning system

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/14/rachel-reeves-planning-system-changes

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Changes intended to reduce ‘burdensome bureaucracy’ and make it easier to build windfarms, reservoirs and housing

Ministers are making it easier to build new windfarms, reservoirs and large housing developments as part of a series of changes to the government’s planning and infrastructure bill designed to bolster the confidence of developers.

The changes – which were first revealed by the Guardian – will be confirmed on Tuesday by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as part of a pre-budget push to underline the government’s commitment to economic growth.

They include reducing the role of Natural England in helping decide on relatively minor applications and freeing up developers to build turbines near seismic sensors in southern Scotland.

Officials say the amendments to the bill were required in part because the government damaged investor confidence by watering down the bill earlier in the summer.

Reeves is hoping the bill will pass the Lords in time to be factored into the growth forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which could give her around £3bn extra breathing room against her own debt rules.

Reeves said in a statement: “The outdated planning system has been gummed up by burdensome bureaucracy and held to ransom by blockers for too long.

“Our pro-growth planning bill shows we are serious about cutting red tape to get Britain building again, backing the builders not the blockers to speed up projects and show investors that we are a country that gets spades in the ground and our economy growing.”

Steve Reed, the housing secretary, said: “Britain’s potential has been shackled by governments unwilling to overhaul the stubborn planning system that has erected barriers to building at every turn. It is simply not true that nature has to lose for economic growth to succeed.”

Reeves and Reed have agreed a number of amendments to the planning bill, which is due back in the Lords on 20 October.

One will allow ministers to stop councils refusing planning permission if they are considering “calling in” the application to be decided at a national level. Recent examples of planning applications which have been called in include controversial plans to build a large new Chinese embassy near Tower Bridge.

Another is specifically aimed at allowing developers to build wind turbines near the Eskdalemuir seismic array, which monitors nuclear test activity around the world. The MoD had raised concerns its equipment could be undermined by nearby turbines.

A third will aim to limit when Natural England, the environmental regulator, should be involved in planning decisions.

Reeves is keen to go further in freeing up the planning system, including with a nature bill later in the parliament, which will mean the UK abandoning EU rules on protected species and drawing up its own instead.

But ministers and officials cannot agree on the need for a separate second planning bill. Some in government want to legislate again to make it easier to build large infrastructure projects such as a third runway at Heathrow, but others think such a bill would be a politically damaging and unnecessary distraction.