Major infrastructure projects like nuclear power stations, railway lines and wind farms will be built faster under new planning rules, the government has pledged.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Nimby (Not in My Back Yard) “blockers” of major infrastructure projects will have fewer chances “to frustrate growth” through repeated legal challenges.
Currently, infrastructure schemes can be challenged in the courts up to three times – ministers intend to reduce that to once in most cases.
Tory shadow levelling up secretary Kevin Hollinrake accused Labour of “taking forward Conservative initiatives” but warned their efforts would fail unless they stopped “blocking our attempts to cut EU legacy red tape”.
Existing rules open up projects approved by elected officials to years of delays and hundreds of millions of pounds of additional costs, the government said.
Opponents of schemes currently have three opportunities to secure permission for a judicial review of a major infrastructure project in England and Wales: writing to the High Court, attending an oral hearing and appealing to the Court of Appeal.
Under the government’s proposals, the written stage would be scrapped – meaning campaigners will have to convince a judge in person.
Additionally, any challenges deemed “totally without merit” by a High Court judge would be unable to go over their heads to the Court of Appeal.
Scotland has its own legal and Judicial Review system.
Ministers said overhauling the rules, via the upcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill, would send a strong signal to global firms looking to do business – that the UK is a “great place to invest”.
Sir Keir said it was time to fix “a broken system that has slowed down our progress as a nation”.
“For too long, blockers have had the upper hand in legal challenges – using our court processes to frustrate growth,” he said.
“We’re putting an end to this challenge culture by taking on the Nimbys and a broken system that has slowed down our progress as a nation.”
Labour has placed planning reforms at the heart of its mission to drive economic growth, also promising to deliver 1.5 million new homes in five years.
During the election Sir Keir pledged to back “builders, not blockers” and promised Labour would prioritise infrastructure to boost growth and expand green energy.
The government has promised to make 150 major infrastructure project decisions by the next election.
Housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook told the BBC’s Today programme the government was “willing to upset people” in order to get infrastructure built.
However, he insisted projects would still have to be compatible with environmental commitments.
The latest announcement follows a review by planning lawyer Lord Banner, who recommended streamlining the judicial review process so claimants had “fewer bites of the cherry” when seeking permission to bring a case.
The review found that around a third of applications for judicial review of major projects were refused permission to proceed entirely, although it was not clear how many had been deemed “totally without merit”.
Welcoming the changes Lord Banner said “reducing the number of permission attempts to one for truly hopeless cases should weed out the worst offenders”.
“I look forward to seeing these changes help to deliver a step change in the pace of infrastructure delivery in the months and years ahead.”
According to the government, more than half of decisions on nationally significant infrastructure projects are taken to court – causing an average delay of 18 months and adding millions to costs.
Officials pointed to cases including the approval of Sizewell C in Suffolk, where campaigners spent 16 months seeking permission for a judicial review despite their case being described as “unarguable” at every stage.
However, only some of the grounds in the Sizewell C case were deemed “totally without merit”, meaning the remaining grounds could still have been reconsidered by the Court of Appeal.
In response to the government’s proposals Hollinrake said: “While we welcome the government taking forward Conservative initiatives to streamline the planning system, Labour’s blocking of our efforts to cut EU legacy red tape, such as nutrient neutrality, so they can align more closely with the European Union will hold Britain back.”
