BUDGET: Construction sector gets ready for planning changes

21st Mar 2012 13:52

The Chancellor of the Exchequer wants a building boom in Britain. In his budget speech on Wednesday George Osborne declared that planning regulations were going to be cut from 1,000 to 50 pages.He added the changes would be part of an overhaul of planning to be published next week.The review will see a controversial "presumption in favour of sustainable development". This is code for making planning applications easier to push through.This could affect a raft of proposals, from power (perhaps nuclear power) stations to housing projects to airport runways.It will certainly please the UK construction sector, which has been making its way back to health after the crash of 2008. Stocks to watch include Berkeley, Persimmon, Bovis, Redrow and Balfour Beatty.BS