Government slammed as ‘for NIMBYs, by NIMBYs’ as planning reform watered down
The government has been criticised after references to planning reform focused on “minor and trivial issues” in the Queen’s Speech.
Property bosses and campaigners have urged ministers to go further with planning reforms.
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) accused the government of having “unconditionally surrendered to the NIMBYs.”
“The fact that the references to ‘planning reform’ concerned themselves solely with relatively minor and trivial issues confirms what we already knew: this government has given up on any serious attempts to make housing in Britain more affordable,” Dr Kristian Niemietz, IEA head of political economy, said.
Critics pointed out earlier reform plans, as outlined in a 2020 white paper, would have made the system less discretionary.
“By U-turning on those plans, the government has made clear that this is a government for the NIMBYs, by the NIMBYs,” Niemietz added.
The National Federation of Builders (NFB) said it was disappointed at the lack of detail on a number of policies relating to the real estate sector.
“Planning reform, which is key to Levelling Up, didn’t offer anything on housing supply or to builders but instead concentrated on resident involvement and greater local powers,” Richard Beresford, chief executive of the NFB, said.
Director of estate agent Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, said “injecting more democracy on a local level is likely to clog up the [planning] system rather than improve it.
He added: “Encouraging NIMBYism is probably not the best way to get more homes through the planning approval process. In any case, planning is not the obstacle as there are hundreds of thousands of plots with planning consent across the UK right now that are not being built upon.”