Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce an extra £48m to recruit 350 new planners – which works out at £137,000 a head.

The move is part of the government’s mantra to “get Britain building”.

Reeves will look to increase the number of graduate planners and launch a Planning Careers Hub which will offer training programmes to support retention and open new routes into the profession.

A Treasury source said: “We’re putting an end to years of dither and delay of previous governments so we can get spades in the ground not stuck in the mud.

“That means turbocharging the number of planners to keep pace with our ambitions to build 1.5 million homes and make 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure projects”.