Sir Keir Starmer is vowing to take on “the NIMBYs” by reducing legal challenges to infrastructure building – with a new approach stopping “newts and bats” from blocking construction.
The Labour government has made growth one of its primary targets, with a key plank of this strategy to build new infrastructure like roads and power plants.
Attempts to complete such projects in recent years have ended up bogged down in legal challenges, which is what the government is seeking to address.
NIMBYs – which stands for “not in my back yard” – refers to people who oppose building in their area.
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Sir Keir Starmer said: “For too long, blockers have had the upper hand in legal challenges – using our court processes to frustrate growth.
“We’re putting an end to this challenge culture by taking on the NIMBYs and a broken system that has slowed down our progress as a nation.
“This is the government’s plan for change in action – taking the brakes off Britain by reforming the planning system so it is pro-growth and pro-infrastructure.”
The government claims more than 58% of all decisions on “major infrastructure” get taken to court – something that is “getting in the way of the government’s central mission to grow the economy”.
And it says each challenge takes around a year and a half to resolve.
As part of the government’s plans, so-called “unarguable cases” will only be able to be brought back to courts once – rather than the current three.
The first attempt, the “paper permission stage” will be scrapped, and a new law will allow a High Court judge to deem a case “totally without merit”, preventing appeals.
The government also says it wants to “end the block and delay to building homes and infrastructure from current environmental obligations“.
The government doesn’t want newts to get in the way of planning. Pic: iStock
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Instead, a new “nature restoration fund” will allow developers to pay into a central fund which will ensure the environment is protected, rather than each individual project having to carry out its own mitigations.
“The new common-sense approach doesn’t allow newts or bats to be more important than the homes hard-working people need, or the roads and hospital this country needs,” the government said.
The planning changes come following a review carried out last year by planning lawyer Lord Charles Banner – who recommended a streamlined system.
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Conservative shadow levelling up secretary Kevin Hollinrake said: “While we welcome the government taking forward Conservative initiatives to streamline the planning system, Labour’s blocking of our efforts to cut EU legacy red tape, such as nutrient neutrality, so they can align more closely with the European Union, will hold Britain back.
“Labour ministers have also sat on their hands on implementing the measures introduced by the Conservatives to cut bureaucracy and provide greater certainty to local residents and developers, and abolishing and replacing hundreds of local councils and asking all their employees, including planning officers, to reapply for their jobs, is hardly a recipe for accelerating decision-making.”