We have long been in favour of radical change in the British planning system. To the point of repeatedly calling for its entire destruction. Not wholly and entirely as mere rhetorical exaggeration either. Still, the current changes proposed are a significant step in the right direction. One way we can prove this is by looking at who is complaining:
The moves were described as an “utter disaster” by the Lancashire, Liverpool city region and Greater Manchester branch of the CPRE charity, which lobbies to protect the countryside.
“We will see a lot more houses on greenfield land and in areas of outstanding natural beauty,” said Debra McConnell, the chair of the branch. “The people in the north of England need these green spaces for their wellbeing.”
People actually living where it’s beautiful doesn’t sound like all that much of a problem to us.
The CPRE also warned the bill, which will largely apply only in England, ran counter to the proposed environmental bill and would “take us back to a deregulated dark age of development”.
That deregulated dark age of the 1930s was the last time Britain actually built housing at the same speed as household formation rates. Sounds like a good idea to us. The housing often being built in those ribbon developments in the South that people now fight to buy into. Housing that people want to live in, where they want to live. We tend to think this is the point rather than a mistake.
It fears most of the new homes are unlikely to be low-cost or affordable.
Issuing lots more planning permissions will make planning permissions cost less. Given that the planning permission is between lots of and the majority of the price of a house this is a good way to provide low cost and affordable housing.
The Nimbys are protesting - something is being done right.
And then there’s this:
The councils body the Local Government Information Unit said the changes would “leave local government with the political liability on planning whilst depriving them … of the powers to manage it effectively”.
Well, yes, our collective problem is rather that local government hasn’t been managing this effectively for around and about an entire lifetime. Ever since the management powers were first granted in fact. About time we change a system that hasn’t worked for 70 years, isn’t it?