The Government has “vowed to sweep aside blockers standing in the way of growth and dismantle barriers to get Britain building,” in changes to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves designed to produce economic growth.

The package of changes if voted through, will see Ministers given new powers to stop councils rejecting applications “while they consider using ‘call-in’ powers to decide whether or not they should be approved.”

The Government release commented:

“Currently some councils are dragging their feet to get on and build with nearly 900 major housing schemes blocked in the past year alone.”

As part of the moves, the role of Natural England would be “streamlined,” thereby “freeing it up to make sensible choices on when to provide advice to local authorities.”

The statement said this will,

“Enable the organisation to focus on higher priority planning applications and nature recovery, helping to accelerate approvals for new homes and infrastructure.”

Major planning permissions will no longer be “timed out” if they are in a judicial review process, in another proposal to be voted on by MPs under the Bill.

Rachel Reeves said:

“The outdated planning system has been gummed up by burdensome bureaucracy and held to ransom by blockers for too long.”