Britain faces a cost-of-living crisis driven in key part by high housing costs and rising energy bills—problems that fall disproportionately on working people. This report by Britain Remade and Community Union argues that the UK’s outdated and overly complex planning system underpins many of these pressures, stifling housebuilding, driving up energy prices, and jeopardising industrial jobs. It is therefore vital that we look at reforming the UK’s planning system so that we can get the UK building again.

Our analysis shows that planning reform is essential to delivering the UK Government’s ambition to build 1.5 million homes this Parliament and Clean Power by 2030. Doing both would boost UK GDP by £100 billion—equivalent to £3,000 per worker—and create a quarter of a million construction jobs alone.

  • The UK’s current planning system causes unnecessary delays and blockers for construction, which drives up costs and deters investment.
  • High costs often lead to the scrapping, scaling back, or delaying of key infrastructure projects.
  • Average household energy bills rose by 95% in 2022 when global gas prices spiked and it was only the Energy Price Guarantee that stopped them rising even further.
  • Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s electricity was among the most expensive in the world. In 2021, British households paid 45% more per kWh than French households, 89% more than South Korean households, and 130% more than American households.
  • No new nuclear power station has been built in 30 years; Hinkley Point C is set to be the most expensive ever built, partly due to 7,000 design changes from its French equivalent to meet British regulatory requirements.
  • The UK has only 437 homes per 1,000 people, the lowest rate among large Western European nations.
  • The median nominal house price has risen 4.5 times since 1999, while median nominal disposable income has only doubled. Less than 40% of 25–34-year-olds now own a home, down from 67% in 1991.

When Britain builds, working people benefit.

  • Making it easier to build major projects supports thousands of onsite roles and many more across supply chains. For example, Hinkley Point C bought 3,000 tonnes of steel from British Steel’s Teesside mill.
  • Reforming planning and encouraging construction create new jobs and apprenticeships, boosting both local and national economies.

Our failure to build is making British industry less competitive.

  • Industrial electricity costs tripled between 2004 and 2021, pushing them above global averages.
  • UK businesses pay 60% more than French counterparts; some very large firms pay over twice as much.
  • Energy-intensive industries (steel, chemicals) have seen key challenges from high energy prices.

Building 1.5 million new homes and reaching Clean Power by 2030 would unlock investment, cut bills, and boost wages and employment, but neither are possible without planning reform. Britain Remade and Community Union have commissioned economic modelling of delivering these key goals to show the opportunity of planning reform.

  • In our core scenario, it unlocks £92 billion of investment into new clean sources of energy by 2030, adding £63 billion in GVA (1.9% of 2023 GDP) and causing electricity prices to fall by 26% by 2040.
  • Our additional nuclear stretch scenario (where nuclear construction costs fall substantially because of regulatory improvements) adds £65 billion investment, £44 billion GVA, with energy prices 17% lower by 2040 and cheapest overall by 2050.
  • Both scenarios create jobs: 10,000 by 2030 and 60,000 more roles by 2040 in the core scenario and 8,000 in 2030 and 50,000 in 2040 in the nuclear scenario.
  • Meeting the target of 370,000 homes annually in England (up from 210,000) adds 160,000 more homes a year.
  • Each additional home built supports 2.4 jobs, creating an extra 400,000 jobs and £38 billion in GVA overall.
  • More homes mean lower rents and more property transactions leading to an increase in stamp duty revenue by £3 billion while housing benefit spend falls by £700 million.
  • Building is the green option too. A new home is more energy efficient, offsetting construction emissions within 13–27 years and saving up to 140 tCO2 over 60 years.

By prioritising worker-friendly planning reforms, Britain can reduce living costs, create high-quality jobs, and ensure our communities thrive.

  • Estate Renewal Passports: Grant automatic planning permission if a majority of residents vote to regenerate and densify their council estates, removing key barriers to urgently needed housing upgrades.
  • New Towns: Build near cities with robust job markets—like Cambridge or Bristol—to ensure new developments offer strong employment prospects and generate additional revenue to fund infrastructure upgrades.
  • Clean Energy Zones: Designate regions of low environmental quality to fast-track onshore wind and solar approval, cutting years from project timelines.
  • Modernised Environmental Protections: Replace unwieldy environmental assessments with focused outcome reports and strategic compensation, improving biodiversity while reducing costs.
  • Reformed Nuclear Regulation: Align UK rules with proven international standards and enable a streamlined process for new reactor designs, lowering costs and securing well-paid, unionised jobs.
  • Brownfield Passports: create a brownfield passport that gives an overwhelming presumption in favour of new six-storey developments near stations and business hubs in cities where houses are unaffordable and housing targets are not being met, subject to a few restrictions.

Now is the time for policymakers to act on a system that has long served “blockers” over “workers,” so that we can build an economy that truly works for everyone.