Builds, Bills and bills: Planning & Environment Updates from the Labour Party Conference

The Labour Party Conference, held 28 September to 1 October in Liverpool, saw a number of announcements made impacting the housing, planning, energy and environmental sectors. An emphasis on empowering local communities and devolved decision-making ran through a number of the key speeches. (Further) planning reform, on the other hand, might to be on the cards as a part of Labour’s commitment to begin the development of new towns in short order, whereas questions over a second planning, or Nature, bill remain unanswered. Some of the Conference’s key announcements in the planning and environment sectors are explored below.

“Build, Baby, Build”: New Town Taskforce’s Report to Government Launched

The New Town Taskforce’s Report to Government was released on 28 September, and launched by Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Steve Reed at the Conference. 

Addressing the Conference, Reed reaffirmed Labour’s pledge to do “whatever it takes to get Britain building again.” Commissioned in September 2024, the Taskforce was asked to identify specific locations for new towns and provide recommendations on their design and delivery. 

The Taskforce recommended that twelve new towns be developed, each delivering at least 10,000 homes. In his speech to the Conference, Minister for Housing Steve Reed referred to Tempsford, Leeds South Bank and Crews Hill as the “most promising” sites, pledging that three of the new towns will enter construction before the next general election. The Report itself tempers the recommendations in setting out that the development of the new towns is subject to due diligence by the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Homes England as well as the necessary consultation processes and environmental assessments.

In line with a wider emphasis on devolution that ran through the Conference, the Report calls for strong local leadership through empowered and locally-led development corporations to coordinate and accelerate delivery. The Report also highlighted the importance of ensuring investment is in place for the enabling infrastructure (such as transport, schools, healthcare, and utilities) to support the new towns before construction commences. A strong emphasis was placed on affordability and social rent, in which a minimum of 40% affordable housing, and half of that on social rent, recommended. Reed announced that £39 billion would be spent on building 300,000 social and affordable homes.

In a nod to the Starmer’s speech in which the Prime Minister called for a state “freed from the red-tape that stops us building”, Reed committed to “back the builders by streamlining planning rules so local people have a voice, but we can get spades in the ground much faster”, a sentiment echoed by  Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, who confirmed that while “the government has made no final decisions […] we are absolutely committed to spades in the ground”.

What that “streamlining” would involve was not explained in Starmer’s speech. However, new amendments announced by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on 13 October 2025 shed some more light on proposed further reforms. The proposed amendments are extensive, and include clauses that could: 

• Automatically extend the implementation period for planning permissions when those permissions are subject to a legal challenge. 

• Similarly, automatically extend time limits for submitting reserved matters applications, listed building consents and commencing development under outline planning permissions subject to a legal challenge. 

• Enable the Secretary of State to give directions which would restrict a local planning authority’s ability to refuse to grant planning permission in certain circumstances.

• Allow Natural England to decline requests for advice from public authorities on specific planning matters if it has published a statement explaining how such requests will be handled which will be reviewed every five years in consultation with the Secretary of State. 

These amendments are likely to form the subject of parliamentary debate when the Planning and Infrastructure Bill returns to the House of Lords for its Report Stage on 20 October.

Bills, Maybe, Bills? Questions over the ‘Nature Bill’

In the run up to the conference, it had been reported that Charlie Banner KC had been tasked by Starmer with  preparing a new planning bill which would seek to implement further judicial review reforms to limit the delays for the approval and development of large infrastructure projects.

Not an announcement per se, but coverage from the Conference has helped to provide some further clarity on what this might entail. ENDS have reported in their coverage of the Conference that Matthew Pennycook denied that a second planning bill had been commissioned when the question was put to him at a Labour Housing Group event. Meanwhile, Nick Williams, a former Number 10 advisor until April 2025 told ENDS at the Conference that while ‘tweaks’ could be made through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which is currently making its way through parliament, “a second planning bill, I actually think would just be a nature bill” which could focus on protection of irreplaceable habitats and amend habitat legislation. This currently forms a part of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill as we reported here, which seeks to change the way that the current Habitat Regulations operate in England and has been subject to much criticism in relation to its ability to offer sufficient environmental protections.

Bills, (Energy) Bills: Key announcements from Ed Miliband on Energy and Climate Change 

In his speech to the Conference, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband announced plans for a new bill which, if passed, would ban new onshore oil and gas licences and ban fracking for shale gas permanently in England. While the timeline of the legislation is not yet confirmed, this should be clarified by the outcome of the North Sea Energy Future consultation which is currently pending. 

As part of Labour’s goals of Clean Power by 2030, Miliband shared that Great British Energy’s scheme to install solar panels on the roofs of schools and hospitals would be expanded: announcing that 45 more schools and 50 further NHS sites will benefit from the scheme to assist “in cutting energy bills for frontline services”.

It was also confirmed that the Warm Homes Discount will be extended, entitling almost 3 million more families to a discount on their energy bills. 

Conclusion

The Government’s ambitions coming out of these announcements are clear: expanded housing, the development of new towns and community-building running alongside a re-affirmed commitment to a clean energy transition. The translation of these commitments into deliverable outcomes awaits to be seen, with eyes peeled (and breath bated) for the upcoming budget, which is due to be announced on 26 November 2025.