Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended plans to curb legal challenges delaying major infrastructure projects. The reforms scrap the written stage of judicial reviews and block "totally without merit" cases from reaching the Court of Appeal. Number 10 said the changes target “hopeless” challenges, aiming to cut delays and costs for projects like nuclear plants, wind farms, and roads. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Well, as part of our plan for change, we're obviously committed to kick-starting economic
00:04growth and part of that is about streamlining the delivery of critical national infrastructure
00:09across the country, whether that's energy, transport, aviation projects. We made a number
00:13of changes to national planning policy last year to support that objective. We're bringing
00:17forward a planning and infrastructure bill in the coming months. And as part of that
00:21package, what we're announcing today is a reduction in the number of judicial review
00:26permission attempts that anyone can make against one of those projects, from three
00:30to two in most cases, but in cases that a judge deems are without merit, from three
00:34to one. And this will help deliver that major national infrastructure that we need to see
00:39being built across the country. Growth is the number one mission of this government
00:42and it will remain so. It's the only way that we're going to fund public services over the
00:47coming years. But growth has to be balanced in the case of these particular applications
00:52with other considerations, whether they be our legally binding climate change commitments
00:55or high environmental standards.