Planning reform BID to speed UK growth

THe Government is to re-write the planning rules to speed up development and inject new life into the flagging economy as David Cameron attempts to seize back the political initiative following a bruising summer.

As MPs prepared to return to Westminster today, ministers were putting the finishing touches to a series of high-profile initiatives intended to show they understand the pressing need to get growth back into the economy.

Chancellor George Osborne said officials were working on plans for a Government- backed bank for small businesses. He confirmed that they would be publishing Bills to ease the planning rules and to enable ministers to use the Government’s balance sheet to underwrite new construction projects.

He said that councils would also be encour- aged to use existing rules which allow them to build on the Green Belt if an equivalent area of land elsewhere is brought into the Green Belt.

However, ministers were facing an immediate challenge from the Tory right, with David Davis – who fought Mr Cameron for the party leadership in 2005 – setting out his own alternative strategy for growth.

He will use a highprofile speech to the Centre for Policy Studies think tank to call for a radical programme of cuts to taxes, regulation and public spending.