Queen’s Speech 2022: Comments on the Employment Bill and Planning Bill

Commenting on the Employment Bill being excluded from the Queen’s Speech, Stefan Martin, Employment partner, said: “The absence of the Employment Bill will be hugely disappointing, both for businesses and workers. Employers have been crying out for clarity in relation to employment status for years, particularly in relation to the growing area of platform work where huge numbers of cases are clogging up the courts as workers and employers seek to clarify their rights and obligations. We were also expecting the government to introduce new legislation to promote equality, with expanded pay gap reporting in relation to race and disability. Since Brexit, businesses have been hoping for a bonfire of EU red tape which has not materialised.”

Commenting on the Planning Bill being excluded from the Queen’s Speech, Robert Gowing, Real Estate senior associate, said: “So it looks like we will continue to see more tweaking around the edges of the planning system, rather than any wholescale reforms. As expected, there is to be no planning bill this year, and instead, today’s Queen’s Speech confirmed that the government’s proposed Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will look to ‘drive local growth, empowering local leaders to regenerate their areas and ensuring everyone can share in the UK’s success'. It is also likely to be the main vehicle for the proposed reform of the planning system to ‘give residents more involvement in local development’. The message that planning decisions need to be more locally controlled is clear, but the resource implications for our already strapped and distracted local authorities are much less certain, and this risks even more uncertainty and confusion over how developers bring forward much needed new development and growth.”