As we all know there’s a move to demand a new industrial policy. Government - those Rolls Royce minds - should determine what is done in our economy, by whom, how, and thereby gain such glorious results to the benefit of the nation.
Hmm, well, it’s an idea. Is there, though, some method by which we can test this? Before we gain that benefit to the nation or not? As it happens, yes. For the use of land has been nationalised since 1947. That’s when the Town and Country Planning Act did exactly that - centralised and nationalised who may use which piece of land for what to gain such glorious results to the benefit of the nation.
The Resolution Foundation has just told us how that has worked out over the 75 odd years:
If all households in the UK were fully exposed to our housing market, they would have to devote 22 per cent of their spending to housing services, far higher than the OECD average (17 per cent), and the highest level across the developed economies with the solitary exception of Finland.
We pay more than everyone else (except those Finns).
In 2018, for example, the floorspace per person in England was 38m2, compared to 43m2 in France (in 2020) and 46m2 in Germany (in 2017). We have been overtaken by Japan, at 40m2, and have less space per person than households in Taiwan, at 49m2. It is unsurprising that our homes are far smaller than in the US overall given its land mass but, strikingly, English floorspace per person is no bigger than that of residents of the central city district of the New York metropolitan area, who on average enjoy 43m2 of room.
We get less than everyone else, (even than those Finns).
Nationalisation of who may build houses where and in what form has led to more expensive housing of worse quality than places which do not have Rolls Royce minds doing that targetted planning with strict conditionality.
There we are, we’ve had a test of the contention and it’s a monstrously bad one. This is not, of course, a good thing to have happened. But it does have that silver lining of telling us what to do next.
First, and clearly, blow up the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and successors. Blow it up properly, kablooie. Secondly, and even more obviously, tell those with arguing for targetted planning with strict conditionality where they can stick that idea.
Doing both of those will allow us to gain such glorious results to the benefit of the nation. Or, at least, do no worse than anyone else free of such impositions.