The Labour government’s first budget will be a plan with “real ambition”, Rachel Reeves has insisted as the party seeks to counter criticisms of being too gloomy about the state of Britain’s economy.

In her keynote speech at Labour’s conference in Liverpool,  which said little about housing specifically, Reeves hailed Labour’s proposed planning reforms.

She said: “What you will see in your town, your city, is a sight that we have not seen often enough in our country - shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, the sounds and the sights of the future arriving. We will make that a reality,” she told conference attendees.