Rachel Reeves has said that she cares “more about getting a young family on the housing ladder than I do about protecting some snails” as she defended the Government’s planning bill.
Speaking to the House of Lords economic affairs committee on Tuesday, the Chancellor urged parliamentarians to get the flagship Planning and Infrastructure Bill into law quickly as ministers look to reach their targets on housebuilding and major projects.
The Chancellor was facing questions on Government amendments to the legislation designed to strengthen environmental protections, which one peer suggested would “make it easier” than in the original plans “to block and delay things”.
The Government has pledged to reach decisions on 150 infrastructure projects and building 1.5 million homes over the course of this Parliament.
The Chancellor said that ministers are of the view that their amendments do not “water down” or “weaken” the bill, and asked for people to be “sympathetic” towards the legislation as it heads towards the statute book.
Ms Reeves, who represents the Leeds West and Pudsey seat went on: “The reason that HS2 is not coming to my city of Leeds anymore anytime soon, is because I’m afraid, as a country, we’ve cared more about the bats than we have about the commuter times for people in Leeds and West Yorkshire, and we’ve got to change that,
“Because I care more about a young family getting on the housing ladder than I do about protecting some snails, and I care more about my energy bills and my constituents than I do about the views of people from their windows.”
A £100 million tunnel to protect bats along the route of the high-speed rail project has been singled out by ministers for criticism.
