‘Wokingham Borough was created with a desire to remove the inefficiencies of duplication of district and county councils….’ says Cllr Pauline Jorgensen (Wokingham.Today; 20 April 2025). The Borough was formed in 1998, following the abolition of Berkshire County Council. Jorgensen was until recently leader of the Conservative controlled borough. She says local Conservatives want to … Continue reading Phoney freedoms, lost opportunities

The government’s passion for economic growth is led by its drive to build lots more new homes and infrastructure fast. Following four decades of housing policy failure few who worry about our nation’s, and children’s future will lack this passion. The price of new homes is far too high. So are residential rents. The ability … Continue reading Why 1.5 m new homes is bosh

The contortions Sir Keir Starmer’s government to preserve the existing call for sites (CFE) and local plan system (LPS) , in order, whisper it, to disguise confrontation with opponents of local spatial change is impressive and embarrassing. SPS’s and SDS’s are the latest example. Common sense, decades of experience of grim land changes of use, … Continue reading No zoning? Try colour coding instead.

Good piece in Thursday’s (10 April 2025) FT by Miranda Green, Deputy Opinion Editor. It talks about a newly released 2025 Youth Poll by the John Smith Institute, a non-aligned charity in Scotland that promotes young people’s engagement in politics across the UK. Go to page 85 for an eye- catching headline. It says ‘In … Continue reading Hope

Wiltshire Council says a new town is required to meet their housing needs. This is rare, and far-sighted thinking by a local council. But hopelessly inadequate too! To hit their homes targets they will also need 300 new homes from the new town, wherever it is built, by 2038. The expiry date of their draft … Continue reading Wiltshire Council is sleeping

An important, and very significant debate took place in the House of Commons on Monday, 24 March 2025. But it was ignored by the national media. It was the second reading of the government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill. During the debate the Conservative shadow secretary of state for housing, Kevin Hollinrake said his party supported … Continue reading Working Together?

According to a worrying piece yesterday by Michael Donnelly, Planning Resource 17 March 2025 the government is running away from opponents of local spatial change. It is proposing that more council planning decisions are taken by planning officers, not by elected councillors. Which is a simple cop-out. Tinkering with decision making process along these lines … Continue reading Who decides?

Chris Smyth, who is The Times Whitehall Editor has written an interesting piece yesterday ( 07 March 2025) which the headline sums up as as ‘Councillors to be stripped of powers to block planning schemes’. It reminds us that next week Ministers will he thinks set out plans to ban councillors from interfering in the … Continue reading Local democracy v. national growth

About a fortnight ago (21 February 2025) I wrote briefly about the call for sites methodology (yes, horrid word, please suggest better) local councils use when preparing new draft local plans. I knew it was and is a crazy system for deciding important spatial decisions by local councils about local land use change. Remember that … Continue reading Stop the ‘call for sites’. It contaminates.

The new Starmer led government has rapidly raised expectations that it will tackle the housing crisis with vigour. In eight months their new initiatives show sincerity, determination, some good sense mixed with naivety too. But are they listening to the right voices? When trying to change embedded processes, governance boundaries and feifdoms run by vested … Continue reading Use your good sense, PM.