When the Blair government rolled into Downing Street on a wave of optimism, Britpop and Hooch (presumably) in 1997, its first job as a government was to make the Bank of England an independent body. The move was a bold one, and a statement of intent for what that Government’s economic policy would ultimately look like.

How exciting, then, that this Government’s first day in office saw Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor, inform Treasury staff that planning reform will be addressed in month one – with consultation on reforming the National Planning Policy Framework to launch before the end of July.

Why the breathlessness? Because Kier Starmer and his new ministerial team stood on a manifesto that pledged to build 1.5 million over the course of the Parliament. That’s 300,000 homes per year, up from the 212,000 new homes built last year. Gulp.

Away from that, there’s also the small matter of closing the skills gap, administering the continued roll out of the Building Safety Act and overseeing ‘Northern Powerhouse Rail’. Gulp, again.

That said, for construction marketers that have had to navigate their brands through choppy waters in recent years the focus on our industry, and the optimism of leading figures within the sector, has to be a good thing.

To make sure you’re as well prepared as possible for today’s King’s Speech, and for the (hopeful) deluge of new activity, here’s a list of the key manifesto pledges made by Labour when campaigning – as well as some recent announcements on cabinet positions and immediate activity.

Who’s in charge?

First, one thing to note for housing (and infrastructure) is the exciting news that construction activity will fall under the remit of Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner. While there is a strong argument that a sector worth approximately 8% of the nation’s GDP should have its own seat at cabinet – it is exciting to have the sector on the radar of one of the nation’s most senior politicians.

As a side note, Rayner has already got rid of the rather patronising ‘Levelling Up’ title for the department, instead opting for the straightforward Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Greenwich and Woolwich MP Matthew Pennycook moves to Housing Secretary with a track record of campaigning on low pay, renter rights and placemaking takes the key DLUHC brief. The 41-year-old is widely considered to be a logical choice for the position, with more experience in the housing sector than his predecessors, having served as shadow housing minister since 2021.

Jim McMahon also moves from ’shadow’ to cabinet, as he takes on the brief of Minister for Local Government and Devolution. Both will work underneath Angela Rayner.

The ‘biggie’ for the sector will be the rumoured appointment of Sarah Jones as construction minister later this week (w/c 15th July). The MP for Croydon West was responsible for industry and decarbonisation during her years in the shadow cabinet and was appointed as a minister of state in both the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero after Labour’s landslide victory last week.

While a junior ministerial position, the role also has a remit for chairing the Construction Leadership Council. There’s an argument that a sector that contributes circa 8-10% of GDP should have a cabinet seat with it but given the volume of construction ministers in recent years (Ms Jones would be the 11th minister in the last five years) it might be prudent just to have some certainty for now.

Some other key names for construction marketers are the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who has put construction at the heart of her plans for economic renewal, as we’ll see later. Ed Miliband’s role as Energy Secretary and Steve Reed OBE on Environment will both be crucial to the sector, as will Bridget Phillipson’s role as Education Secretary in the ability to develop a clear skills pipeline from education to industry.

Let’s start with the one that’s had the most attention and look at some of the key pledges on housing.

Housing

Having housing at the heart of the Government’s economic plans represents an enormous opportunity for construction business that sell into that supply chain. After a tough few years battling inflation, rising material costs, limited demand and a slow (at best) planning system, the incoming Government has been quick to move on its manifesto pledges, which were:

1. 1.5 million new homes over a five-year period

2. ‘New towns’, 40% of which must be made up of affordable housing (minimum)

3. Mandatory housebuilding targets for local authorities

4. 150,000 social and affordable homes per year (750,000 over the Parliament)

5. A ‘Freedom to Buy’ policy to get 80,000 people on to the housing ladder by making the existing mortgage guarantee scheme permanent

6. A ‘First Dibs’ policy to give local people first refusal on new homes

7. Abolish ‘no fault’ evictions in the private rented sector

8. End Private Rental Sector tenant ‘bidding wars’

Pleasingly, the wheels are already in motion here, though nobody is kidding themselves that it will be an easy task. As Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, notes:

“The home building industry stands ready to support the chancellor’s ambitious plans for housing with investment, job creation and the new homes the country needs.

“As [the Chancellor] identified, we can only build if we plan effectively and if councils take responsibility for the housing needs of their communities. We also need to address the lack of capacity in local authority planning departments and unblock the 160,000 homes held up by nutrient neutrality.

“We must also consider the current struggles of first-time buyers to take their first steps on the housing ladder. In this environment it is frustrating that, for the first time in decades, there is no active government support for aspiring homeowners.

“Building the homes the country needs will address the social issues our housing crisis is creating, provide young people with access to decent housing, whilst creating tens of thousands of jobs and boosting investment in communities in every area of the country.”

So, a huge opportunity, but one that is going to require a lot of work to be realised. For manufacturers that can offer labour and time saving solutions, or those that can introduce some methods of modernisation to the supply chain, the time to start to find a way to convince the supply chain is now – they may need your brand more than they realise.

Planning

Everyone’s favourite topic… no, seriously.

What has been something of a ‘political hot potato’ in recent times has been the first thing that the Chancellor has sought to tackle, as noted in the introduction to this piece. We’ll see what the full report into planning reform looks like as soon as the end of this month (July).

As well as the return of mandatory targets, changes to planning policy will include new priority given to energy projects and changes to the ways ministers use powers for direct intervention.

Reeves said that the new housing secretary, Angela Rayner, would write to local authorities to make clear that local plans and green belt reviews are expected, with priority given to brownfield and grey-belt development.

The shadow chancellor also re-stated that local authorities would be supported with 300 new planning officers, which was a manifesto pledge, and announced the creation of a new taskforce to accelerate stalled housing sites. Here’s some of the key pledges:

1. Design standards for “gentle urban development”.

2. Require combined and mayoral Authorities to strategically plan for housing growth in their areas.

3. Combined authorities to receive new planning powers along with new freedoms and flexibilities to make better use of grant funding

4. Planning passports for developers which meet design standards, allowing easier brownfield development

5. Create new ‘grey belt’ land class for poor quality areas of the green belt with requirement for at least 50% affordable housing

6. Reform planning system for onshore wind to allow more projects to go ahead

7. Hire 300 more planning officers, paid for by increasing stamp duty on homes purchased by non-UK residents by 1%

8. “Tough action” to ensure planning authorities have up-to-date local plans

9. Strengthen presumption in favour of sustainable development

Infrastructure

One area that has been a major bone of contention in recent years is that of infrastructure. Even before the former Prime Minister took to the stage at Manchester Central to call for the cancellation of HS2’s northern leg the project had captured the public’s imagination for all the wrong reasons. Sadly, overrunning deadlines and budgets have become a common theme in mainstream media, before we get to industrial action, rising rail costs and, of course, potholes.

The recent Metro Mayor elections pointed to the direction of travel, pun intended, as local rail and road networks were prioritised and pledged by Labour’s candidates (who won 10 of the 11 mayoral elections last month). The commitment to Northern Powerhouse Rail, as detestable as the name is, shows that there is a desire to support regional infrastructure requirements, as does the recent creation of a new council for regions and nations, which will meet regularly to progress the devolution agenda.

In its General Election manifesto, the party promised to develop a 10-year infrastructure strategy to “guide investment plans and give the private sector certainty about the project pipeline”, which will be music to the ears of anyone with a stake in the sector.

Here’s some of the other headline announcements:

1. Independent inquiry into HS2 to look into how future projects can avoid cost overruns

2. Fully committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail

3. Merge the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure and Projects Authority into a new body called National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), which would have new powers.

4. Designate prisons as ‘nationally significant’ projects to deliver 14,000 additional places by 2030

Skills

Skills is one area that the team at SLG has a particular interest in, given our involvement in Build UK’s ‘Open Doors Week’ and our own ‘Deconstruction’ initiative, and one that could be argued is the cornerstone of us achieving any of the pledges listed so far. Let’s face it, without some swathing changes to the make-up of the supply chain, we’re not likely to hit our building targets regardless of the levels of investment.

While there was limited mention in the manifesto of investment in technology/R&D for sectors like construction, the introduction of a 10-year industrial strategy should offer a broader context for manufacturing and construction in the UK. The manifesto had explicit mentions of the following:

1. Revamped apprenticeship levy to fund specialist training colleges

2. Firms can use up to half of apprenticeships funds to train existing staff or pay for pre-apprenticeship training

3. New law aiming to cut immigration by forcing government departments to draw up skills improvement plans in high migration sectors including construction

Net zero

As well as the pressing need to build more, there’s also the pressing need to ensure that the country can meet its Net Zero 2050 targets. This, of course, doesn’t happen in a vacuum and is linked to many of the above points – one survey from recruiters Reed noted that if we recruit into the sector at our current rate, we’ll only have the resource to hit Net Zero in the year 2130. Gulp.

That aside, new Minister for Energy and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, has been busy with announcements on the creation of Great British Energy and the abolition of bans for onshore wind facilities. Expect plenty of policies linked to this in the King’s Speech, and expect the new investment into the green space to create more investment and more roles as well as, hopefully, more building activity:

1. £15bn on green investment a year (£4.7bn of which is new money)

2. Upgrade five million homes to an EPC C rating over the course of the parliament

3. Decarbonise UK power by 2030 under new body, Great British Energy

4. Targets for faster approvals on renewable projects

5. Double onshore wind, triple solar and quadruple offshore wind by 2030

The main elements of the King’s Speech during the State Opening of Parliament will take place between 11am and 12.30pm on Wednesday 17th July.