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.