Starmer vows to take on ‘blockers’ as Labour council says government housebuilding targets ‘impossible’ – UK politics live

In his Times article Keir Starmer says his government will introduce “a golden era of building”.

Generations before us built the infrastructure the entire nation was proud of — from civic buildings to train stations, hospitals to schools. So we will introduce a new golden era of building. That’s why we’re fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure by the end of parliament, more than double those decided in the previous parliament. We’ll build the schools, the hospitals, the railways and roads, the towns and villages, that will shape our national landscape for years to come and fuel growth in every region and nation.

And, reviving an argument he has made countless times before, he also argues that planning regulations need to be relaxed. As an example of where current laws are too tight, he says the rules that led to HS2 having to set aside £100m for a shed for bats are “absurd”.

In the past 14 years, the Tories decided fewer than 60 infrastructure projects. We haven’t built a reservoir in 30 years, not least because the time it takes to secure planning permission for major infrastructure projects has almost doubled in the past decade. Every road, pylon and mast — which connect people with opportunity — must jump through endless hoops, only to be opposed, dragged out, before eventually, if lucky, approved. That’s how we ended up with the absurd spectacle of HS2 building a tunnel for bats that cost £100 million.

The £100m bat shed story is so extreme you might assume it’s made up. But it’s not. Here is Gywn Topham’s story about the HS2 chair talking about it at a conference last month.

Good morning. Yesterday Keir Starmer committed the government to six “measurable milestones” – a mixture of some new targets and some existing ones, wrapped up in a package intended to show people that the government is focusing on things that will make a tangible difference to their lives. They are in a Plan for Change which is an implicit admission that the previous headline performance indicators that Starmer said he wanted to be judged by – his five pre-election missions, and his six “first steps for change” – were a bit woolly.

One of the new milestones is:

Building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects – more than the last 14 years combined.

Arguably this involves two targets, but the most important is the 1.5m new homes one. It is not new – it was in the original five missions – but it is receiving fresh attention because Starmer has recommitted to it, and in an interview on the Today programme this morning, Yvonne Gagen, the Labour leader of West Lancashire borough council, said the specific targets set for councils as part of this ambition were “impossible”.

Gagen said the current housebuilding target for her council was 166 new homes per year, and West Lancashire was delivering above that. But she said the new target was 605. That was “unrealistic” and the council would “really, really struggle” to hit it, she said.

Gagen said that “the vast majority of councils” felt the same way and that the government should start listening to them. She went on:

I feel that we are going to be on a collision course with Labour. And it’s not just Labour councils. It’s Liberal Democrats, it’s Conservatives, they’ve all said the same thing.

When asked to confirm that, as a Labour council leader, she expected to be on a collision course with her own government, Gagen replied:

Absolutely, absolutely, over these planning targets. They are absolutely impossible and unrealistic.

The government has been consulting on the new housing targets for councils in England, announced by Angela Rayner in July, and on Monday the BBC published a report saying that most councils that have responded to the consultation are telling the govenment in private what Gagen was saying on Today this morning: that the targets cannot be achieved.

But Starmer has signalled that he won’t back down. In an article for the Times this morning about his Plan for Change, he says he welcomes the chance to win the argument with the “blockers” obstructing change. He says:

I know, with trust in politics so low, the public are sceptical of promises made by politicians. And who can blame them, after years of inaction by successive Tory governments. But that can’t be an excuse for low expectations and easy ambitions, a culture that isn’t brave enough to even try for fear of failure. I know some councils have come out this week to challenge our plans for housing reform. I always knew there would be resistance to our planning reform. Let me say this — I won’t shy away from this argument. In fact, I welcome it.

Where there are blockers putting the brakes on, it’s a sign you are delivering real change. And change is what the British people voted for this summer — a government that is willing to take on the obstacles and break down the barriers that prevent us from reaching our full potential.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: MPs start debating the European Union (withdrawal arrangements) bill, a private member’s bill tabled by the TUV’s Jim Allister that would remove checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. It has no chance of becoming law, but the debate will allow Allister and other MPs to criticise the current Brexit arrangements for Northenr Ireland.

10.30am: Keir Starmer attends the British-Irish Council meeting in Edinburgh, with Irish and devolved government leaders. There will be a press conference at 12.30pm, and Starmer is also doing interviews.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Afternoon: Starmer is on a visit in Newcastle.

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