New chancellor Rachel Reeves has used her first speech to outline plans to build one and a half million homes over the next five years, supported by reforms to the wider planning system.
Ms Reeves said Labour would restore mandatory housing targets as part of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework that would establish a 'new growth-focused approach to the planning system'.
'We will ask the Secretaries of State for Transport and Energy Security and Net Zero to prioritise decisions on infrastructure projects that have been sitting unresolved for far too long,' she stressed.
The highways network has been beset at national and local level by scheme delays, often related to judicial reviews.
One senior figure at National Highways told Traffex in May that legal challenges to planning approvals for major road enhancements had cost the government-owned company hundreds of millions of pounds.
Attempts to unlock unresolved highway schemes could give the transport secretary Louise Haigh some tough decisions on how to proceed - not least on flagship projects such as the A303 Stnehenge Tunnel, which is currently mired in another potential legal challenge.
However, at the local level the new emphasis on housing delivery could mean a boom time for local road projects essential for housing development.
The Labour government plans 'to create a new taskforce to accelerate stalled housing sites in our country beginning with Liverpool Central Docks, Worcester Parkway, Northstowe and Langley Sutton Coldfield, representing more than 14,000 homes'.
The Government also plans to support local authorities with 300 additional planning officers across the country and relax restrictions on building on parts of 'low quality' green belt, which Labour has termed 'grey belt'.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, will write to local planning authorities alongside the National Planning Policy Framework consultation, to make clear that ministers expect 'universal coverage of local plans, and reviews of greenbelt boundaries'.
These reviews should 'prioritise brownfield and grey belt land for development to meet housing targets where needed', Ms Reeves said, adding that there might be more direct ministerial intervention in the planning system.
Another key element to the government's plans is to end the ban on new onshore wind in England, as energy will be a key focus for new infrastructure.
'We will also go further and consult on bringing onshore wind back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects regime, meaning decisions on large developments will be taken nationally not locally,' the chancellor said.
She stated that energy projects in the planning system will be given specific priority 'and we will build on the spatial plan for Energy by expanding this to other infrastructure sectors' - a move that could support the roll-out of electric vehicle infrastructure.
Cllr Richard Clewer, housing and planning spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said: 'National targets cannot be an effective substitute for local decision making. County and rural areas have overseen the building of 600,000 homes over the last five years, more than the rest of the country combined.
'With housing delivery lower in England’s areas, housing targets should not be overwhelmingly allocated, or re-allocated, to county and rural areas, and instead, there should be a fair distribution of housing across England.
'Many county areas suffer from significant infrastructure pressure, with two-thirds of councils saying the pressure on their roads, schools and health services is excessive. In the Government’s planning reforms, infrastructure must be an equal consideration to housing targets and it is imperative that reform allows us to better capture funds for the vital infrastructure that both enables and mitigates development.'
