Often when trying to analyse announcements such as those made in The King’s Speech, the temptation is to say, ‘time will tell, the devil will be in the detail’, and so on. This can be rather frustrating for those of us working in the built environment who, let’s face it, have been waiting for significant changes for longer than we care to remember.

While sadly there’s some truth in the need for us exercise patience and await the fine print in the bills to be brought forward to Parliament, reading between the lines we can start to paint a picture of the specific changes Labour will be proposing.

Here’s what we know so far (deep breath):

Planning reform

Featuring prominently in The King’s Speech is the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which among other things will ‘modernise’ planning committees and increase local planning authorities’ capacity to deliver an improved service. We know from previous commitments that Labour plan to recruit an additional 300 planning officers, but given there are 317 local authorities in England, you can be rightfully sceptical about how much this of an impact this will really have.

Rather more ambitiously, Labour has plans to simplify the consenting process for major infrastructure projects, while also accelerating upgrades to the national grid and boosting renewable energy.

What perhaps is even more interesting are things which aren’t there. We will have to wait to examine the new NPPF for more announcements, which is expected to go out to consultation later this month. Hopefully we will soon get confirmation local authority housing targets will be made mandatory again (although were they ever really mandatory even before the Villiers intervention?).

Devolution

If introducing mandatory housing targets is the stick used to beat local authorities with, what will be the carrot? Channelling my inner T. Rex, soon we could all be ‘Children of the Devolution’.

Angela Rayner, Deputy PM and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, wrote to local authority leaders this week with a commitment to devolving powers over housing, planning, transport and skills, with a preference given to areas which choose to govern via an elected Mayor.

Rayner made the point that local authorities would not be forced to accept devolution – you can imagine some councils would rather secede from the UK than be governed by an elected Mayor as part of a combined authority.

The English Devolution Bill will seek to transfer powers away from Westminster by establishing a new framework for devolution, moving away from the deal-based system we have in place currently.

National Wealth Fund

According to background notes from The King’s Speech, the National Wealth Fund will be ‘central to deliver this Government’s mission to deliver growth and a greener economy’.

The £7.3bn fund will be applied UK-wide, although some have warned its size is ‘pretty trivial’ – the proof will be in the pudding on how much impact it will really have.

Transport

Moving onto transport, we start with the Passenger Railway Services Bill which, as trailed in the Party’s manifesto, will make appointing a public-sector operator the default position for the UK rather than merely a last resort.

Meanwhile, in the Railways Bill, the Government is intent on bringing together the management of the network and the delivery of passenger services into a single public body, Great British Railways (GBR).

From trains to buses – the most commonly used mode of public transport in Britain. The Better Buses Bill will give new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services and support local leaders to create the transport networks that are right for their communities.

Energy

And finally we turn to energy, an issue which over the past few years has been felt in people’s pockets more than many other issues. In the run-up to the King’s Speech, we had already seen much talk about Labour’s decision to scrap the ban on onshore windfarms, originally introduced by the Cameron Government, while doubling down on their commitment to delivering clean power by 2030.

Further to this, the Great British Energy Bill will establish a new, publicly-owned energy production company which will own, manage and operate clean power projects.

A final word

All in all, quite a lot there for us to digest. We’re expecting a number of the bills to be introduced before the summer recess, so hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for the additional detail we’re all craving.