Rachel Reeves hires planning lawyer to speed up major infrastructure projects
Chancellor’s office said Catherine Howard will work on next phase of the government’s planning reforms
Rachel Reeves is bringing a top planning lawyer into the Treasury to advise on ways to unblock major infrastructure investments as the chancellor faces the threat of big growth downgrades in the upcoming Budget.
Catherine Howard, a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, will advise on the next phase of the government’s planning reforms, the Treasury said, after Reeves expressed frustration with the slow progress of key infrastructure schemes.
Developers argue the government needs to go further than the current planning and infrastructure bill, which is in the House of Lords but has been watered down so much, they say, that it may no longer significantly speed up large projects.
The government pledged last year it would ease planning regulations to deliver £725bn of new infrastructure over the next decade as well as 1.5mn new homes in England over the next five years.
The Treasury is braced for downgrades to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s productivity outlook, which could contribute to a fiscal hole worth tens of billions of pounds going into the Budget on November 26.
Officials are aiming to convince the OBR to mitigate any cuts to growth projections by vowing to push through a programme of pro-growth reforms in areas such as regulation.
Howard is expected to advise Reeves on how to push through new projects in a second phase of planning reforms, as well as on rapid implementation of the existing bill.
The Treasury is contemplating a new planning law to streamline major projects that could be included in the next King’s Speech.
One potential model is new legislation in Canada that allows the cabinet to speed up approvals processes and bypass certain federal laws for projects that could boost the economy.
“As a country we’ve cared more about bats than commuter times for people in Leeds and West Yorkshire,” Reeves told a House of Lords committee during the summer, referring to a costly tunnel scheme to protect bats from the construction of the HS2 rail line.
Reeves has been pushing officials to find new ways of speeding up the building of projects including roads, green energy schemes and data centres.
The government has already said it will use private finance to deliver new community health centres, the Lower Thames Crossing, a bridge and tunnel to the east of London, the Sizewell C nuclear power plant and around £50bn of water projects including reservoirs and pipes.
Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, said there was a “host of investors that have the finance ready but they will need certainty over the planning regime”.
Alistair Watson, planning partner at Taylor Wessing, said Howard’s appointment was “badly needed” as the planning bill “has been dragged into the mire”.
Chris Curtis, co-chair of the Labour Growth Group, a parliamentary caucus pushing for the government to prioritise growth, said Howard was an “exceptional addition” to the Treasury. “We’ll continue to work with her closely, as we have for the past year, on delivering reforms bold enough to build the projects Britain needs”.