McFadden: Planning reform could be controversial, but we must ‘get things built’

A top Labour figure acknowledged its planning reforms “may be controversial” but said that “we have to get things built”, ahead of the King’s Speech which is expected to include a commitment to address what the party sees as a major block to building houses and vital national infrastructure.

The Bill is likely to involve streamlining the planning process and reintroducing mandatory housing targets, as well as facilitating building on the “grey belt” – green belt land that has previously been developed.

Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, was quizzed on his morning media round on Wednesday about how the government would tackle nimbyism and whether individual MPs would block developments as well as what kind of land new housing could be built on.

Mr McFadden told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We were very clear during the election campaign that we would come out of this on the side of getting things built more quickly.

“That may be controversial in some places, I’ve no doubt that it will be.”

But the Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East added that doing nothing would mean aspirations of home ownership or even renting a home at a reasonable price would continue to be unrealisable for a generation of young people.

He said he could not guarantee that MPs would not try to block developments in their local communities, telling Times Radio that they were entitled to their views.

“In the real world, there’ll be some developments that some people don’t like. That’s always going to be the case,” he said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out a raft of plans last week to build 1.5 million new homes over five years across the UK, including by reinstating compulsory housebuilding targets for local councils.

Ms Reeves also said Labour would reform the planning system to make it easier to build houses on less desirable parts of the green belt, which Sir Keir Starmer has dubbed the “grey belt”.

Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow House of Commons leader, told LBC on Wednesday he was concerned that Labour’s plans would see green belt protections “ripped up” and that local councils who are democratically elected would be “steamrolled” and ignored by the central government.

The Tories built 2.5 million homes since 2010, Mr Philp said. He conceded that the figure was well below the target to build 300,000 homes a year.

He called the term grey belt “a piece of nonsensical and shameless spin”, in comments to Times Radio.

Mr McFadden, meanwhile, said Labour’s policy was to build on “brownfield first”.

He told Times Radio: “But it’s simply a myth to say that there are parts of what we call the green belt that haven’t been built on in recent years. And it’s been done in an uncontrolled way.

“And we don’t want to sacrifice the beautiful parts of our countryside. But we do have to get things built in this country.”

The address – the first speech from the throne under a Labour government for 14 years – is expected to contain more than 35 Bills and draft Bills with an emphasis on improving transport, creating jobs and accelerating the building of houses and infrastructure as Labour seeks to escape Britain’s recent cycle of low growth.