Starmer takes aim at planning system that favours ‘the already wealthy’
Sir Keir Starmer has put more flesh on plans to overhaul the planning system, which he said favours “the already wealthy”.
The Labour leader said making it easier to build homes and infrastructure was critical to fulfilling his five “missions” for government, announced last week.
In a speech in the City of London about Labour’s first mission — to have the highest sustained growth of the G7 by the end of a first term in government — Starmer said Britain needed to build more in the next seven years than it had in the past 30.
Sir Keir Starmer has put more flesh on plans to overhaul the planning system, which he said favours “the already wealthy”.
The Labour leader said making it easier to build homes and infrastructure was critical to fulfilling his five “missions” for government, announced last week.
In a speech in the City of London about Labour’s first mission — to have the highest sustained growth of the G7 by the end of a first term in government — Starmer said Britain needed to build more in the next seven years than it had in the past 30.
He said: “Nothing reeks more of decline than the idea Britain can no longer do big things that benefit working people. I will never accept that. So if you think it is not government’s role to shape markets; that we are only here to serve them… or that the planning system should favour the already wealthy, not the new houses, wind farms and laboratories we need to create more wealth, then that’s not going to work for us.
“That’s not going to work for growth. Won’t deliver what our country needs. We have put a lot of work into this and we know: growth is the answer.”
In a sign of Labour’s growing closeness to business, Starmer later held a private roundtable discussion with senior City figures including John Allan, chairman of Barratt Developments and Tesco; Tony Danker, director-general of the CBI; Clare Barclay, chief executive of Microsoft UK; and Karen Blackett, president of advertising giant WPP.
Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, joined remotely from Canada, as did Andy Haldane, the bank’s former chief economist.
The Times (£)
