Fury at Labour plan to 'build on fields' by watering down Green Belt rules and stopping locals objecting to onshore wind farms - after Chancellor Rachel Reeves uses first big speech to vow overhaul of 'timid' planning system

Rachel Reeves was accused of 'silencing' local opposition today after she vowed a dramatic overhaul of the 'timid' planning system to stop housing developments being blocked.

In her first major speech, the Chancellor put reforms at the heart of a drive for growth, with parts of the green belt opened up for building.

Local people will be stripped of powers to object to onshore windfarms as decisions are to be taken at national level, and Ms Reeves said she wanted to unblock the process for other major projects. 

That could allow for the installation of hundreds of miles of new electricity pylons needed to link up wind and solar farms to the grid. 

Before MPs break for the summer, councils will be issued with mandatory targets to clear the way for hundreds of thousands of new homes. Labour has committed to building 1.5million by the end of this Parliament.

Speaking at the Treasury, Ms Reeves said there were always 'trade-offs' in allowing development to go ahead but the default answer could not be 'no'.

'The question is not whether we want growth, but how strong is our resolve? How prepared are we to make the hard choices and face down the vested interests? How willing, even, to risk short-term political pain to fix Britain's foundations?' she said.

'The story of the last 14 years has been a refusal to confront the tough and the responsible decisions that are demanded. This Government will be different and there is no time to waste.'

The move was hailed by the renewables industry and climate change campaigners. 

But Tories said Ms Reeves' proposals meant 'building on fields', condemning ministers for taking 'top-down decisions that impact the countryside from offices in Whitehall'. 

Shadow environment secretary Steve Barclay said: 'It has taken just days in office for Labour to show what we have said all along - they neither understand nor care for rural people.

'Onshore wind is an important part of our energy mix, but removing protections to allow developers to ride roughshod over the concerns of rural communities isn't the way to go.'

In other early moves from the new government today:

• Keir Starmer is visiting Northern Ireland, and will head to Wales later as well as posing for a photograph with his new MPs;
• More than 330 MPs who have never served in Parliament before are descending on Westminster as the Commons prepares to reconvene tomorrow;
• Tory recriminations are gathering pace in the wake of the extraordinary election meltdown last week.  

Ms Reeves set the stage for Labour's big push on planning by admitting that the public finances are so stretched that boosting growth is the 'only route to improving the prosperity of our country'.

The landslide election win has given Labour a 'mandate' for radical change, she argued.

The Chancellor said environmental concerns cannot be allowed to block all developments.

'We must acknowledge that trade-offs always exist. Any development may have environmental consequences, place pressure on services and rouse voices of local opposition, but we will not succumb to a status quo which responds to the existence of trade-offs by always saying 'no',' she said.

'I have repeatedly warned that whoever won the General Election would inherit the worst set of circumstances since the Second World War. What I have seen in the past 72 hours has only confirmed that,' she said.

'Our economy has been held back by decisions deferred and decisions ducked. Political self interest put ahead of the national interest. A government that put party first and country second.

'We face the legacy of 14 years of chaos and economic irresponsibility. That is why over the weekend I instructed Treasury officials to provide an assessment of our spending inheritance so that I can understand the full scale of the challenge and I will present this to Parliament before the summer recess.

'This will be separate from a budget that will be held later this year and I will confirm the date of that budget alongside a forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility in due course.'

Ms Reeves has commissioned Treasury analysis showing that if the economy had grown at the average rate of the OECD group of developed nations during the last 14 years, the UK's economy today would be £140billion bigger, with £58billion more in tax revenues for public services.

'Economic growth is about more than lines on a graph. This is about whether working people feel better off, whether our high streets and town centres are revived, whether there are good jobs paying decent wages in more parts of the country,' she said.

'Success for me will be whether working-class kids from ordinary backgrounds have more opportunities than they do today, and I think those opportunities have gone backwards in the last few years.'

But she acknowledged being in Government will mean 'difficult decisions' because of 'the mess left by our predecessors'.

Ms Reeves insisted that planning reform is among the 'first steps' needed to 'fix the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain'.

'Our manifesto was clear: Sustained economic growth is the only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people,' she said. 

'Where governments have been unwilling to take the difficult decisions to deliver growth – or have waited too long to act – I will deliver.

'It is now a national mission. There is no time to waste.' 

But Tory Droitwich MP Nigel Huddlestone said: 'Rachel Reeves announced Labour's changes to planning and housing - and name-checked a proposed site at Worcestershire Parkway within my Droitwich and Evesham constituency. 

'During the election campaign I expressed grave concerns about Labour's instincts to make top-down decisions that impact the countryside from offices in Whitehall. 

'The local voice should not be ignored. While we all know we need more housing, it has to be in the right place, on the right scale and with appropriate supporting infrastructure. 

'Let's also be clear we are talking about building on fields, not previously developed land or brownfield sites here, too.' 

Ms Reeves was appointed as Britain's first female Chancellor on Friday, and warned that there was 'not much money around'.

However, left-wing MPs and union leaders are already pushing for Sir Keir and Ms Reeves to turn on the spending taps.

Unite boss Sharon Graham said there was scope for the Government to borrow tens of billions of pounds to 'invest' in the economy and public services. 

She urged Ms Reeves to scrap Labour's tight fiscal rules and pour billions into Britain's 'crumbling public services'.

'We are going to have to borrow to invest,' she told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. 'We have not got time to wait for growth.

'People are literally hurting out there and we are going to have to borrow to invest – our crumbling public services need money.'

However, Ms Reeves insisted today that she will not 'throw caution to the winds' and ditch fiscal rules to borrow more. 

Touring broadcast studios ahead of Ms Reeves' appearance this morning, Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones said that stimulating 'strength and growth' in the economy is Labour's 'first and most important mission'.

He tried to play down concerns that local communities will be 'excluded' from decisions on housing projects, saying the idea was just to remove 'inertia'. 

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has also called for a 'decisive break with austerity'. 

Sir Keir yesterday began a whistle-stop tour of the UK with a visit to Scotland, where he promised an 'immediate reset' of relations with the devolved administrations.

Tomorrow he will travel to the Nato summit in Washington where he will seek to reassure leaders that his Government can be trusted on defence despite ditching Rishi Sunak's pledge to raise military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade. 

Labour's decision to target the planning system immediately is likely to bring it into conflict with both countryside campaigners and those communities that feel they are already at the limit of development their area can take.

It could also trigger a backlash from some of its own MPs who represent a swathe of constituencies across southern England where planning reform has been resisted for years.

During the election campaign, one Labour official said the party was prepared to 'flatten the whole green belt'. This was denied by Labour.

Ben Houchen, Tory mayor of Tees Valley, said promising rapid growth on the back of planning reform could become 'a noose around the Labour Party's neck'. 

He added: 'How keen are the Labour Government to tinker with environmental regulations which is one of the largest delays in the planning system?'