The next government must rebuild the UK’s planning system
You almost couldn’t make it up. Britain, faced with a generational housing crisis, building less than a year ago. Even better, the weather is at least partly to blame. Welcome to Blighty. We used to build things, you know.
The main culprit is of course the planning system, which – from the moment a misty-eyed developer lays eyes on a potential plot attempts – seems only intended to slow down and obstruct the path towards spades in the ground. When the weapons of NIMBYism are taken up by local councillors and MPs, they become almost irresistible.
Highlights of recent planning fails must make you laugh, lest you otherwise cry. Our favourites include an elegant collection of six barely mid-rise homes in south Croydon which were to replace a work out single home which resembles nothing more than a concrete bunker: the MP for the area, the never knowingly out-volumed nor out-blustered Chris Philp, said the planning rejection was the right thing to do as new homes should be built on brownfield sites – just not this one. Another: the data centre next to the M25 which was nixed as it might ruin the view of the surrounding countryside from a bridge over the London Orbital itself. Who knew the planning system did irony?
These are extreme examples, but it’s not just about those that are punished. Even those developments that make it through – rarely unscathed – often have hundreds of thousands in legal and planning fees to recoup. Inevitably, that cost is passed on to the buyer, and up and down any chain they might be in.
A sensible planning system would zone land – giving developers a clearer understanding of what can and can’t be done. It may in some cases be more restrictive than currently, but that would be preferable to the dog’s dinner we have now. Of course, the dream is a system that allows developers to build some houses in places people want to buy them. Over to you, Keir.