Labour’s first month: What you need to know

As the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves played a key role in setting out an agenda for getting Britain building in July, and new housing and construction ministers were appointed.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was named secretary of state for housing, communities and local government – replacing a revolving door of Conservative politicians in the role and signalling the importance the new government places on housing. Matthew Pennycook was appointed minister of state for housing.

Meanwhile, Sarah Jones became the new construction minister. Her official title is minister for industry, which includes a range of other sectors including advanced manufacturing, chemicals, and plastics and materials.

Labour wasted no time in re-introducing housebuilding targets, pledging 1.5 million in this parliament to address the “most acute housing crisis in living memory”. This equates to 370,000 a year – a figure that has not been matched since the 1960s.

Labour subsequently announced mandatory housebuilding targets for local authorities based on a new standard method for calculating need. This could mean output needs to triple in areas such as Yorkshire.

A much-vaunted overhaul of the planning system was launched to kickstart housing construction. The headline announcement was the redefining of some previously untouchable greenbelt land to free up space for housing. Notably, the concept of “grey belt” land was introduced.

Grey belt was defined as poor quality and ugly areas of the green belt, such as areas which have previously been built upon like disused petrol stations. The jury is still out on how much land this will really free up.

Angela Rayner has launched a new accelerator programme to unblock thousands of new homes stuck in the planning system. An experienced team from the Ministry of Housing and Homes England will bring together government agencies, local planning departments and housebuilders, who will work to resolve specific local issues and deploy planning experts to work through blockages at each site identified.

The government’s initial analysis suggests there may be over 200 sites with outline or detailed planning permission where work has not yet begun, which have capacity to deliver up to 300,000 homes.

Elsewhere, Chancellor Rachel Reeves made headlines taking a cutting knife to several significant national infrastructure projects. The A303 Stonehenge tunnel and the A27 Arundel bypass scheme in West Sussex were both put on the chopping block in a bid to shore up public finances to the tune of £22 billion.

Reeves claimed the Conservatives had made “unfunded commitments knowing the money wasn’t there” and added that “more difficult decisions would be needed.” So those involved in other major infrastructure projects may well be looking nervously over their shoulder.

But it wasn’t all bad news for infrastructure chiefs. Within a week of coming to power, the new government lifted a ban on onshore windfarms and energy secretary Ed Miliband approved three giant solar farms that had been stuck at planning stage for some time.

The green energy extravaganza was topped off by the launch of a new publicly owned energy company called Great British Energy. It will be partnered with private firms to speed up the deployment of wind, solar and nuclear energy and co-invest in new green energy technologies.