Keir vows to rip up planning rules to favour ‘builders, not blockers’

SIR Keir Starmer will today vow to tear up planning rules to favour ‘the builders not the blockers’ in what critics dubbed a ‘developers’ charter’.

The Labour leader will pledge to bring back controversial house building targets which force local councils to build an allocated number of homes each year. And he will take on so-called Nimbys by ripping up planning rules to favour development.

In a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce, Sir Keir will say: ‘Mark my words: we will take on planning reform.

‘We’ll bring back local housing targets. We’ll streamline the process for national infrastructure projects and commercial development and we’ll remove the veto used by big landowners to stop shovels hitting the ground.

‘We choose the builders, not the blockers; the future, not the past; renewal not decline. We choose growth.’

Sir Keir will insist that planning reform is needed to revive an economy that is ‘stuck in second gear’.

Rishi Sunak has ditched ‘top down’ housing targets, leading to warnings that the Tories will fail to meet the pledge to build 300,000 homes a year. Last night the Tories warned that Sir Keir’s plans would lead to a concreting over of the countryside. Sources also accused him of ‘flip-flopping’ on the issue, having previously ordered his MPs to back the right of local communities to object to unsuitable schemes.

Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said: ‘This is just another flip-flop from Labour – Starmer will say anything that suits him. Labour’s Developers’ Charter would prevent local residents from objecting to developers’ plans to build on their streets, in their communities or on treasured public spaces, concreting over the green belt.’