Boris Johnson vows to tear up planning red tape in his driver to rebuild Britain and create jobs 

Boris Johnson vowed today to bulldoze Britain’s bloated planning system to help get the economy moving again.

Relaunching his Government, the Prime Minister pledged to bring forward ‘the most radical reforms of our planning system since the end of the Second World War’.

He said the move, which will see ministers take the axe to swathes of red tape, would pave the way for an ‘infrastructure revolution’ that would create jobs now and improve productivity long-term.

Mr Johnson said the Government wanted to ‘build, build, build’, but added that he would ‘build back better, build back greener, build back faster.’ Chancellor Rishi Sunak will lead a new unit, dubbed ‘Project Speed’ to fast track major infrastructure projects and identify bottlenecks in the system that need to be cleared away.

The Prime Minister hinted that he would also take the bulldozer to parts of the Whitehall machine, saying he had been frustrated by its ‘sluggish’ response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Johnson used the speech in Dudley, in the West Midlands, to set out the principles of his government following months in which the coronavirus has occupied almost all of its effort.

He said that, despite the continuing health challenges and looming economic crisis, it was ‘the moment to be ambitious’ about the future.

People would be offered a ‘New Deal’, he said, with Britain rebuilt in a fairer way after the pandemic exposed divisions in society. The PM restated his determination to offer opportunity to people living in ‘neglected’ parts of the country, saying he was ‘doubling down on levelling up.’

The Prime Minister said there would be no return to austerity, despite the dire state of the public finances, but refused to rule out tax rises further down the track.

And he said he would pour resources into addressing the looming jobs crisis, saying that keeping people in work and helping them re-skill was the ‘biggest and most immediate economic challenge that we face’.

But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said much of the speech was recycled from previous policy announcements and failed to meet the challenge the country is facing.

‘The Prime Minister promised a new deal, but there is not much that’s new, and, it’s not much of a deal,’ he said.

Mr Johnson acknowledged that, with Leicester becoming the first city to go back into lockdown, some would think it ‘premature’ to focus on the future. But he said the country could not afford to continue being ‘prisoners of this crisis’.

In a wide-ranging speech, the Prime Minister:

• Set an ambition to make the UK a ‘science superpower’, with ministers planning a new system for funding ‘high risk, high reward’ projects that can transform British ideas into ‘new British industries and British jobs’.
• Pledged to offer young people an ‘opportunity guarantee’, with businesses to be offered grants to ensure apprenticeships are available for all.
• Revealed that he is close to finalising proposals for a new system for funding social care which will ensure people do not have to sell their homes to pay for care.
• Defended the free market system, saying that people should clap for businessmen and bankers as well as doctors and nurses, as their efforts ‘make our NHS possible’.
• Hinted he could revive audacious plans for a bridge linking Scotland to Northern Ireland as part of plans to strengthen the Union.
• Announced £5billion of additional infrastructure spending, with money to rebuild and refurbish schools, hospitals, courts and prisons.
• Warned against abusing new freedoms to enjoy pubs and restaurants this weekend, saying: ‘The virus is out there still, circling like a shark on the water.’

The PM focused much of his fire on Britain’s sclerotic planning system. He announced a number of immediate changes designed to tackle the crisis in the commercial property sector.

These include allowing offices and shops to be converted into housing without planning permission in most cases.

Businesses will also be able to ‘repurpose’ property to a new use, such as converting a shop into a cafe, without the need for council red tape.

And developers will be able to demolish vacant and redundant buildings without normal planning permission, provided they are to be rebuilt as homes.

But government sources said yesterday’s changes were ‘by no means the end of our ambitions’. At a meeting of government advisers last week, Dominic Cummings, the PM’s chief adviser, described the planning system as ‘appalling’, adding: ‘It makes things so hard to build.’

Mr Johnson yesterday announced that ministers will bring forward proposals to replace Britain’s seven-decade old planning system with ‘a new approach that works better for our modern economy and society’.

He hinted that time-consuming environmental surveys, and similar red tape, could be streamlined, saying: ‘Time is money, and the newt-counting delays in our system are a massive drag on the productivity and the prosperity of this country.’

He added: ‘Yes, we will insist on beautiful and low carbon homes, but Covid has taught us the cost of delay. Why are we so slow at building homes by comparison with other European countries?’

Mr Johnson suggested that ‘Nimbys’, who often slow down developments near their homes by objecting, would also have to accept change. ‘I can imagine there will be some people who reject this or that but there always are,’ he said.

‘We need pace and this is the moment to inject that pace into the ambition of the Government.’

The PM acknowledged that the planned increase in construction would involve the loss of some green field sites.

He said that although new homes and other projects could often be built on previously developed ‘brownfield’ sites there were ‘other areas that with better transport and other infrastructure could frankly be suitable and right for development’.

Downing Street later clarified that the Government’s manifesto commitment to protect the Green Belt remained in place.

But the push for new development alarmed some environmental campaigners. Tom Fyans, of the CPRE countryside charity, said: ‘Deregulating planning and cutting up red tape simply won’t deliver better quality places. It’s already far too easy to build poor quality homes.’

Boris was fizzier than a can of Vimto, splurging cash and back to his best. Yowzers, says HENRY DEEDES 

Hard hat? Check. Oversized high-vis jacket? Check. Daft stunt in hardcore heavy machinery? Check, check, check.

With a crash and a bang and a no small wallop, Boris Johnson rolled into the West Midlands yesterday to outline his ‘new deal’ plans for the economy. Finally, a chance to blow away some of those coronavirus cobwebs and get back to turbo-charging Britain.

First item of business: The obligatory visit to a building site to muck about on a digger. Thud! Clank! Screeeeech!

Amid the din of Boris crunching his way through the gears, there may even have been a prime ministerial yell of ‘yowzers!’ The site’s poor ’elf and safety officer must have been having kittens.

Next up, a rallying cri de coeur at Dudley College of Technology to get Britain back to work. It was bustling, back-to-his-best stuff. Fizzier than a can of Vimto.

The Prime Minister took his place shortly after 11am behind a lectern which read: ‘Build build build.’

For the next 20 minutes we heard how he planned to bring forward £5billion worth of infrastructure spending. New schools, new hospitals, new homes. New trees, even.

The slogan might just as well have read: ‘Spend! Spend! Spend!’

We heard so much splurging that at one point the Prime Minister had to remind us: ‘I’m not a communist.’

All I can say is, I hope Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s keeping the stubs from all those cheques. Rishi, my boy, you’ve got some tricky book balancing to do.

Boris was desperate to shake the country out of its sclerotic, lockdown-induced state. ‘We cannot continue to be prisoners of this crisis,’ he said. Although back to full health he does look terribly pasty under the television lights.

Unfortunately, his handlers have as much chance of applying powder puff to his nose as they do getting him into a well ironed shirt.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, was his message. This was a prime minister desperate to make up for lost time. After all, he may have survived corona but it is killing his legacy.

We were told we could hang around for ‘lightning and the thunderclaps’ from its economic reverberations.

There was frustration at the axles of government which sometimes turn far too slowly for his liking, like a ‘recurring bad dream when you are telling your feet to run and your feet won’t move’.

Small wonder he was calling this initiative ‘Project Speed’. Boris even spoke with impatience, spitting out some phrases in rat-a-tat-tat fashion.

London ‘as/was/is’ the capital of the world, he said, jabbing his right arm repeatedly like a darts player aiming for the bullseye. He wants to build homes that were ‘better/greener/faster’.

It was noticeable how keen he was to distance himself from his predecessors. So many of these plans he said should have been carried out yonks ago.

Boris pointed out the crisis in our social care system, for example, had been ‘flunked’ by successive governments for 30 years.

He planned to build some roads meant to have been built when John Major was in power.

The Prime Minister said he would not try and ‘cheese-pare’ us out of recession.

Was this a pop at David Cameron’s austerity programme after the 2008 financial crisis? Wouldn’t surprise me. He still pulls a face whenever Dave’s name gets mentioned.

Of his opponent Sir Keir Starmer, there was no mention. The closest Boris came to referencing Labour was when he talked of wanting to lift the country up rather drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

‘I don’t believe in tearing people down any more than I believe in tearing down statues that are part of our heritage let alone a statue of our greatest wartime leader,’ he said. Nice line.

He ended with a Tiggerish rally. ‘We will not just bounce back,’ he said. ‘We will bounce forward – stronger and better and more united than ever before.’

Boris isn’t great at telling us how it is, as this crisis has sometimes shown. But what a performer he is when he’s telling us how it might be.