Starmer vows to take on ‘alliance of naysayers’ with planning reform

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. He said he would face down nimbys and an “alliance of naysayers” to drive through his planning changes, insisting he would end the “nonsense” of red tape holding up major projects. In a speech at Pinewood Studios to launch his “plan for change”, he said: “We haven’t built a reservoir for over 30 years and even the projects we do approve are fought tooth and nail, nail and tooth, until you end up with the absurd spectacle of a £100 million bat tunnel holding up the country’s single biggest infrastructure project. “I tell you now this Government will not accept this nonsense anymore.” The Prime Minister said the commitment would “send a very clear message to the nimbys, the regulators, the blockers, the bureaucrats, the alliance of naysayers, the people who say ‘No, Britain can’t do this, we can’t get things done in our country’”. “The challenge to prevent another false dawn is to stick to them in the face of adversity.” Sam Richards, chief executive of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, said: “A major first step would be approving the projects that are currently sat on ministers’ desks.