‘I MEAN BUSINESS’
‘We’ll make tough decisions,’ Reeves declares in speech as Labour targets Green Belt for building thousands of homes
The Chancellor used her first major speech in the top job to unveil a series of planning reforms
RACHEL Reeves insisted she won't shy away from making the "tough decisions" needed to boost growth as she announced plans to build 1.5million homes.
The Chancellor used her first major speech in the job to unveil a series of planning reforms and set out a "national mission" to deliver growth.
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Speaking at the Treasury, Reeves centred housing and planning at the core of that drive for growth.
Reeves promised investors "Britain is a place to do business" and said many companies had doubted whether the country was previously a "safe haven".
Reeves said her Government would build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years while relaxing planning restrictions on building on parts of the green belt.
She also pledged to bring back mandatory housebuilding targets.
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Vowing to get "Britain building again", the Chancellor acknowledged not everyone would agree with her ideas.
She said: "I know that there will be opposition to this. I'm not naive to that.
"And we must acknowledge that trade offs always exist.
"Any development may have environmental consequences, place pressure on services, and rouse voices of local opposition.
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"But we will not succumb to a status quo...
"This Labour Government has been elected to get things done to get Britain building again."
The new chancellor also announced an immediate end to the “absurd” ban on new onshore wind developments in England.
Keir Starmer releases glossy behind-the-scenes clip callin gfor a 'bigger reset'
Reeves used her speech to raise Labour's policy of a national wealth fund.
That £8 billion fund will have the explicit aim of tackling regional inequality through private and public investment.
Reeves said she received a report into the fund from a task force led by Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor, and will be revealing her next steps soon.
The governing party also wants to develop a 10-year infrastructure strategy.
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Responding to a question from media, Reeves said: "I think you can see today that I mean business.
"We're getting on with the work that's needed to unlock that growth."
She also revealed the date for the Government’s first budget will be announced before the Commons’ summer recess.
Sir Keir Starmer's administration has made economic growth - and the tax revenue that would flow from it - a key plank of his strategy to fund our crippling public services.
This Labour Government has been elected to get things done to get Britain building again
Rachel Reeves
The Conservatives pledged in 2019 to reach a target of 300,000 new homes a year - with mandatory building targets for all local authorities.
But a Tory backbench rebellion last year forced former Housing Secretary Michael Gove to water them down.
He rewrote the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) making the targets advisory rather than mandatory.
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Labour’s manifesto pledged to “immediately” rewrite the NPPF “to undo damaging Conservative changes, including restoring mandatory housing targets”.
It said that while local communities will continue to “shape house building in their area”, Labour would “not be afraid to make full use of intervention powers to build the houses we need”.
Rachel Reeves - the new 'Iron Chancellor'
ONCE cruelly dubbed “boring snoring” by a TV exec, Rachel Reeves has spent the past 18 months carefully reinventing herself as the new, non-nonsense ‘Iron Chancellor’ in waiting.
It is a deliberate nod to Margaret Thatcher and designed to show Brits that she can be trusted with their hard-earned cash and is a tough woman not to be messed with.
In some ways Rachel’s rise seems written in the stars. She was a schoolgirl chess champion, studied PPE at Oxford and worked at the Bank of England.
Then came politics. And after getting elected as Leeds West MP in 2010, Rachel quickly became a rising star of Ed Miliband’s frontbench - although she refused to serve in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
Her career really took off when Sir Keir Starmer promoted her to shadow chancellor in his first big reshuffle in 2021.
Since then the pair have been joined at the hip - they are probably the closest No10 and No11 pairing since David Cameron and George Osborne.
A tough cookie, she was key in scrapping Labour’s £28 billion a year green eco pledge - much to the fury of Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner.
She's now become Britain’s first ever female Chancellor. Quite the achievement. As Rachel’s favourite singer Beyonce once sang: Who run the world? Girls!
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