Early evening summary
Keir Starmer has said it is “far too early” for the UK to consider unproscribing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group which has taken over Damascus. (See 5.38pm.)
Starmer has agreed “a step change in defence partnership with Saudi Arabia today”, Downing Street has said. (See 3.42pm.) It issued the statement after Starmer’s meeting with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. In a subsequent interview, Starmer said his visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia was primarily about boosting growth in the UK. He told broadcasters:
Last week I launched my plan for change and made it clear that economic growth in the UK is my number one mission, and I want that to be people feeling better off, living standards driven up across the United Kingdom, in all parts of the United Kingdom.
For that to happen we have to win contracts and investment around the world, and UAE and Saudi Arabia are key partners of ours.
So I’ve been making the case that now’s the time for further investment into our country.
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has said he would like to see “innovators and disrupters” working for the civil service. (See 11.42am.) He made the comment in a speech in which he also said the government would “rewire” the way Whitehall works by getting officials to adopt a tech startup-style “test and learn culture”. (See 9am.)
Updated
Tories accuse Labour of 'tinkering with democratic system' after Rayner announces council planning procedure changes
A Conservative housing spokesperson has suggested the government is “tinkering” with planning decision-making, instead of “getting developers developing and builders building” new homes, PA Media reports.
After ministers unveiled proposals to let some developers swerve town hall committees before they build (see 3.17pm), David Simmonds said the 4% of applications that elected councillors considered themselves were the ones where “the local democratic voice is so relevant”. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook said Simmonds’s party had “torpedoed” housing supply when they were in power.
In a Commons urgent question on the plans, Simmonds said:
Given the huge increase in the housing planning permissions granted under the previous government, when does the government now intend to start work on getting developers developing and builders building, rather than tinkering with a democratic system that’s already delivered more than a million homes with consent in England already?
He also said during his question that with 96% of planning applications determined by council staff already, “it is that 4% to which the local democratic voice is so relevant”.
Pennycook replied:
It’s quite rich hearing from [Simmonds] crow about planning permissions in the system. We’re experiencing the lowest planning permission and completions in a decade as a result of the party opposite’s changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) made in December 2023 that have torpedoed supply and hit growth across this country.
He also said the announcement was “just the latest in a series of working papers on planning reform, and it’s explicitly designed to kick-start engagement before we launch a formal Government consultation on a more detailed proposition”.
As PA reports, Pennycook described three proposals which he said could “streamline local planning decision-making” across England: a national scheme setting out which types of planning applications should be determined by a committee of elected councillors and which by employed officers; new dedicated committees for strategic development “to dedicate energy to the most significant projects”; and mandatory training for elected decision makers.
He said that although just 4% of applications came before councillors’ committees, these represented some of the largest plans and therefore a “substantial portion of total units in the planning process”.
