Odds-on favourite to be PM to set out deregulatory plan to create new towns
Liz Truss will today set out plans to remove planning restrictions and other regulations to boost housebuilding and other development in new “investment zones”.
Truss, who is now odds-on to beat Rishi Sunak to become Conservative leader, said the new zones are “at the heart of my vision for levelling up”.
She said: “We will work with local communities to identify sites ripe for transformation across the country through lower taxes, reduced planning restrictions and red tape. These zones would open the floodgates to new waves of investment.”
Truss said the move will create “new hubs for innovation and enterprise” in the spirit of Victorian model villages such as Bournville in Birmingham and Saltaire in Yorkshire.
She added: “My investment zones will rejuvenate local areas in the same way the London Docklands was regenerated, with new jobs in the industries of the future.”
She said under her plan Britain will play to its strength “as a science and tech superpower”.
The details of her planned push for deregulation are not yet known but reports suggest the zones will have areas focused on commercial, residential or industrial development and a streamlined residential planning process on the periphery.
Height restrictions and other building regulations could also be relaxed, although Truss’ team is reportedly insisting no safety restrictions will be watered down.
Truss’s campaign team has been approached for comment.
The move follows Truss last week promising to ditch central “Stalinist” housing targets, implying she would ditch the Conservative manifesto pledge to increase house building to 300,000 homes year by the mid-2020s.
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