King’s Speech 2024: Will Labour get Britain back building again?

Planning reform was centre stage of Labour’s manifesto with some ambitious targets for the new Parliamentary term and now, following the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, we get a hint of the significant legislative changes that are to come. Here we take a look at the new Bills announced and their potential impacts.

Planning

1. A Planning and Infrastructure Bill will be introduced to reform planning and accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing. The Bill has five key aims:

• Streamline the delivery process for critical infrastructure by simplifying the development consent regime and enabling new and improved National Policy Statements to come forward. This will hopefully fast-track certain infrastructure projects through the planning system – but it will remain to be seen if any new sectors (such as housing) will fall under the NSIP regime.
   
• Reform compulsory purchase compensation rules to ensure landowners are paid fair but not excessive compensation where important social and physical infrastructure and affordable housing are being delivered. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA) already allows the Secretary of State to direct that hope value will be ignored for certain CPO schemes – will Labour extend these provisions or make more radical changes? Labour will have the difficult task of balancing the promotion of public benefits with landowners’ right to equivalence.
   
• Improving local planning decision making by modernising planning committees – while this is light on detail, anything which helps de-politicise the decision making process will be welcome news to developers.
   
• Increasing local planning authorities’ capacity to improve performance and decision making – the resourcing issues experienced by planning departments across the country is one of the biggest stymies to development and while Labour’s recent commitment to appoint 300 new planning officers is undoubtedly good news, it is still fewer than one officer per authority. Let’s hope that Labour has some other tricks up its sleeves for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to combat this long running issue.
   
• Using development to fund nature recovery where both are stalled to deliver positive environmental outcomes – it’s no secret that nutrient neutrality has been stifling housebuilding during a period marked by a housing crisis. The requirements in LURA on water companies in England to upgrade wastewater treatment works in vulnerable areas were welcomed, but they do not go far enough to combat the issues the industry is facing. So, it’s good to see that Labour intends to actively engage with industry stakeholders over the summer to find a solution. However, only time will tell if any positive initiatives come to fruition. 

Improvements to the planning regime itself can only be a good thing, but the proposal to achieve this through yet another piece of primary legislation in the shape of a new Planning and Infrastructure Bill is of concern given how long it took the last administration to get the last piece of planning legislation onto the statute books.  It is to be hoped that the large Labour majority will deliver the new laws quickly.

2. Strategic planning is firmly back on the agenda with the proposed introduction of an English Devolution Bill. The Bill will give new powers to metro mayors and combined authorities and allow local communities to “take back control”. Local leaders will also be required to produce Local Growth Plans to bring economic benefits to communities. It is hoped that a more strategic focus will help unlock the delivery of development which is currently hampered by a cumbersome Local Plan-led process.

3. The government will establish an Industrial Strategy Council through a proposed Skills England Bill. While not directly a planning policy, this could potentially influence strategic planning decisions, particularly for industrial and commercial developments.

Housing

1. A Renters' Rights Bill (for further details see here and here) will be introduced, ending no-fault evictions and reforming grounds for possession. While primarily affecting the rental market, this could indirectly impact planning by influencing the types of housing developments proposed and approved.

2. The Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill (for further details see here) will reform the leasehold and commonhold systems, including regulating ground rents, limiting service charges, and reinvigorating and promoting commonhold ownership. This could affect how developers structure their proposals, particularly for apartment buildings and mixed-use developments.

Energy and Infrastructure

The government has set a target of achieving clean energy by 2030, with a new Great British Energy Bill intended to help achieve energy independence and unlock investment in energy infrastructure. Building on the scrapping of the ban of onshore windfarms, the Bill will establish a publicly owned clean power company, headquartered in Scotland, which will invest in renewable energy projects across the UK. The government will also support the development of nuclear power, sustainable aviation fuel, carbon capture, and green hydrogen. This could lead to an increase in planning applications for renewable energy projects, potentially requiring planning authorities to adapt their policies and expertise. New National Policy Statements for clean energy will be welcome; there is a policy gap for some of the technologies that the Government is focussing on, such as onshore wind and hydrogen, and quicker decisions will require clearer and more supportive planning policy through both National Policy Statements and the National Planning Policy Framework.

Overall, the King's Speech outlines an ambitious agenda that places significant emphasis on planning reform, housing delivery, and energy and infrastructure development as a means to kickstart economic growth in the UK. The proposed legislation suggests a move towards streamlining planning processes, empowering strategic thinking, and prioritising sustainable development. However, the King’s Speech was, unsurprisingly, light on detail and legislative changes will take time – so, in the short term, emphasis will need to be placed on changes to policy to ensure that Labour remains on track to meet its manifesto pledges. In that regard, we eagerly await an updated National Planning Policy Framework… and could we even start to see National Development Management Policies being introduced in the not-too-distant future?

We will continue to monitor these developments closely and provide updates as more information becomes available.

Article co-authored by Grace Owen-Ellis, Trainee Solicitor, and Caroline Stares, Senior Associate at CMS.