From NIMBY, to YIMBY: Labour's strategy to speed up infrastructure projects

Fresh from the Labour Party conference last week, Janet Wood, Editor of New Power Report, gives us her thoughts on how the government is aiming to shift the UK from being a ‘blocker’ to an ‘enabler’ when it comes to planning and development.

Labour has promised a government for growth, but to make good on its promise something must be done to turn the UK’s planning system from a blocker of development to an enabler – while at the same time ensuring high quality development that is acceptable to local communities.  

Planning reform is urgent if the energy industry is to deliver on the government’s mission to make the UK a ‘clean energy superpower’ with new transmission lines and renewable energy projects. But reform is just as urgently needed to deliver other infrastructure: for example, Labour wants to relieve the pressure on housing by enabling 1.5 million homes to be built in the next five years.  

With that in mind, the party’s annual conference in Liverpool saw the start of a concerted attempt to shift the view of the planning process away from an opportunity to say, ‘not in my back yard’. It wants to give more prominence to the constituency that sees updated infrastructure as underpinning a modern country and an end to ‘broken Britain’ headlines.  

The ‘Yimby’ (Yes In My Back Yard) rally at the party’s conference in Liverpool signals a trend likely to persist in the coming months. This focus aligns with recently released research indicating that a new transmission line in Scotland did not negatively impact local house prices, as well as polling data revealing widespread public support for new wind farms. The timing of these findings is no coincidence, reinforcing the party’s pro-development stance. 

Another phrase that came up a lot at the conference was ‘Grey Belt’ land, following on from comments by Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP in July. Reeves suggested that the ‘Green Belt’ concept of maintaining open land around towns, to prevent urban sprawl, needs refining. The designation has been around since the 1950s but some Green Belt land is ugly or previously developed, so it does not serve its purpose: she described this as ‘Grey Belt’ land that should be available for needed infrastructure. 

Can Yimbys and the Grey Belt start to open the door to faster development? The government does not want to appear to override community concerns and has signalled support for recommendations by Electricity Networks Commissioner Nick Winser in 2023 that communities should receive benefit for hosting infrastructure that will serve the country as a whole. But community engagement takes time and Labour’s ‘mission-led’ government has promised delivery. In his speech, Kier Starmer said: “If we want cheaper electricity, we need new pylons overground, otherwise the burden on taxpayers is too much.”  

More development will require more planners and a promise to recruit 300 new planning officers (which averages one for each UK local authority) has been welcomed. But they are not yet in place and nor is the legislative framework for speeding up delivery. New planning statements that make a presumption that green energy infrastructure is justified are now law, but other powers will be taken as part of an infrastructure bill, promised in the King’s Speech, that won’t be before parliament until next year.  

It has to be said that a planning system that acts as an ‘enabler’, instead of a blocker, will not of itself solve the current problem of securing capacity on the electricity network for new generation and demand. New transmission lines and new substations will take several years to build, even with the fastest permitting, and it is industry rules that determine how connections queues are managed.  

Energy regulator Ofgem recently decided that interim changes to queue management would not be sufficient and proposed more far-reaching changes in an open letter. Networks believe fundamental change is necessary but have still to feedback on Ofgem’s new proposals, and when finalised, the reforms will have to follow the industry’s process for changing the rules. It is not clear how long that will take. 

In the meantime, there may be indirect benefits. For example, if opening ‘Grey Belt’ land for development opens up more sites, it may mean developers of infrastructure such as electric vehicle Charging hubs, or distribution hubs, re-examine their choice of location. New initiatives by electricity networks include online ‘heat maps’, which show immediately which parts of the network are fully utilised and where there is spare capacity – a process that used to require slow and costly requests for information – so it is now easy to consider whether different sites may offer faster connection to the electricity network.  

Such a readjustment among the projects in the queue would be a small change but positive. Delivering Labour’s growing economy will require wholesale change and a new attitude that for a modern country where the infrastructure works, development is necessary - even if it is in your back yard.