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Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out planning reforms on Monday, which she claims will speed up the construction of key infrastructure and thereby boost the UK’s economic growth rate.
Her proposals are expected to include increasing the stamp duty surcharge for non-UK residents and appointing 300 new planning officers to speed up progress on major national schemes.
Labor announced last year that it would raise the surcharge on new property purchases from 2% to 3%, raising £25m a year.
Reeves will also commit future Labor governments to strict fiscal discipline, with her latest proposals focusing on supply-side reforms rather than spending billions of pounds in extra funding.
Reeves will set out reforms at the Labor Party conference in Liverpool aimed at delivering ambitious future plans, following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision last week to cancel the northern section of HS2, the UK’s biggest infrastructure project. Construction Plan.
She will set out reforms to speed up the planning process for “vital infrastructure” and provide the incoming Labor government with mandatory new national guidance on priority projects.
Construction plans in priority growth areas such as battery factories, laboratories and 5G infrastructure will be “fast-tracked”, with incentives offered to affected local communities.
Addressing opposition to key projects such as wind turbines and towers, Reeves will say the benefits will be “felt” by people living next to critical national infrastructure, possibly through lower energy bills.
Reeves also claimed Labor could address the “appalling” and time-consuming legislation by setting out national guidance for developers on expected involvement in local consultation.
“The biggest obstacle to infrastructure, investment and growth in this country is the Conservative Party,” Levis said.
The technical proposals reflect Reeves’ determination to set policies that do not increase Britain’s borrowing levels and reflect the cautious mood that prevailed at this year’s Labor conference.
The meeting decided not to discuss the Brexit motion backed by former party leader Lord Neil Kinnock, calling on Labor to negotiate closer EU/UK ties.
Although Starmer has recently spoken about negotiating a better post-Brexit deal with the EU, the party leadership wants to keep the heady issue off Liverpool’s agenda.
A shadow minister said Starmer’s team had also instructed colleagues to be careful about how they behaved while in Liverpool. “We were told there were Tory spies here,” one said.
Reeves will claim that growth must be accompanied by what she calls the “iron law” of the economy.
“Working people have the right expectations,” she would say. “A Labor government will not waver from iron-clad fiscal rules or play the Tory game of undermining our economic institutions.”
Labor has become increasingly close to business, with senior executives lining up to welcome Reeves’ planning proposals.
Martin McTague, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “This is clear, proven policy that will help deliver the infrastructure projects we need to stay competitive, restore growth and stem the curse of deforestation and change. “
His comments may be seen as a riposte to Sunak’s recent shift in attitude towards HS2 and net zero targets, which UK business leaders have criticized for creating economic uncertainty.
The planning system has long been a sore point for clean energy developers, who complain that it takes too long to obtain planning permission and that growth has been slowed despite broad targets.
On Sunday, Labor also set out other measures to speed up the development of new electricity networks amid concerns that a lack of capacity would delay efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.
It plans to open network development to competitive tendering, with its planned listed energy company GB Energy likely to bid to develop new capacity and coordinate cable supply tenders.
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