“There may be trouble ahead”

The Coalition’s avowed desire to further reform the planning system in order to drive economic growth is, in my view, misconceived and just plain wrong.

I do not believe that it will work or that it will do what it is said that it is hoped it will do. I for my part am no longer sure that economic growth is the real reason for the ‘reforms’ anyway. I see it as nothing less than another step in the process of ‘rebooting’ the planning regime to re-orientate the decision making process away from local planning authorities. Otherwise, why embark on such a risky and foolhardy venture?

But let’s look at what the Coalition appears to have in mind (remember we do not as yet have a draft bill and the inevitable secondary legislation with all of the relevant detail). 

Re-designating housing as infrastructure and directing its development in the Green Belt (whatever matching replacement provision mechanism is devised) will not secure its provision.

Leaving aside the hypocrisy of reverting to the top down ‘diktat’ approach favoured by the ‘Socialists’ and so derided by the Tories, the approach is not going to work because first, the banks, as is generally accepted, are just not lending which is a necessary pre-requisite to breaking ground and second and in any event, the residential housebuilders are already sitting on existing land banks which are not being developed. The August construction figures show that there is a further slowdown across all sectors of the market. 

But even if all of these new houses are built they will need to be built where people need and want them i.e. close to jobs and all the other necessary social infrastructure of modern living. That is not in the Green Belt. Equally importantly people will need to be able to afford to buy or rent them and that looks increasingly unlikely as we see the biting hardships of the double dip recession. 

I do not believe that further loosening of the local planning authority oversight is a good thing. Development Control at the local planning authority level can, without a doubt, be a good thing. It can secure high quality development which makes good rationale use of the scarce land resource which has the effect of increasing values for all. The alternative does not bear thinking about with local people having unwanted development forced on them at the whim of a central government in hoc to the developers. For goodness sake we don’t want to have a Spanish style free for all. Look where that led them.

The Tories raised the expectations of their natural supporters in the shires with the ‘Localism’ agenda. People were encouraged to believe that they would have a genuine say over the way in which their local area was to be developed. Along came the National Planning Policy Framework with its presumption in favour of sustainable development raising competing expectations in the development industry. These expectations mean that there are now inherent tensions in the process. With further changes in the pipeline there is undoubtedly further trouble ahead as the rural lobby girds its loins for the internecine warfare to come within the Tory party .

Tinkering with the appeals, statutory challenges and judicial review mechanisms is touted as one way of reducing the time it is said that it takes to get planning permission. But planning is a participatory process which, if it is to work and work well, requires public endorsement and underpinning. In a democracy where the rule of law applies, making it harder for the public to participate in a meaningful way is not going to make the concerns abate or the litigation (and associated delay) go away. It is, in my view, going to make it more likely given the need to comply with shortened timescales and to protect positions in the short term.

But the Tories don’t seem to see that or is that they no longer care and are working to another agenda? The recent Cabinet reshuffle suggests that the Prime Minister and the Coalition, or at least the Tory majority part of it, are equally gearing up for a fight.