30 January 2025, 09:34

By John Caudwell

The Chancellor unfairly called out “bats and newts” as the villains getting in the way of Britain’s ability to build new homes and infrastructure, as she outlined further economic growth plans for the country yesterday.

But we all know who the real beasts are blocking progress towards getting vital new development approved at pace: the bureaucrats.

As if to set the tone for nature-themed similes, the Prime Minister – writing earlier in the day in The Times – said “thickets of red tape” had been allowed to spread through the British economy “like Japanese knotweed”.

Any attack on bureaucracy is wholeheartedly welcome in my opinion and, by and large, Rachel Reeves set out a planning overhaul that ticked a lot of the right boxes: reaffirming Labour’s commitment to 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament and announcing a new Planning Infrastructure Bill for “faster approvals”.

Britain has been stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire for far too long. If we want to drive real economic growth, we need to unlock our........

© LBC