One the most informed and thoughtful journalists is Tim Hartford. (IMO on a par with Paul Johnson,, author of Follow the Money). Harford writes a sound, evidence based column in the Financial Times. So I looked forward to seeing his Channel 4 expose on Monday’s television broadcast Skint: The Truth About Britain’s Broken Economy. And … Continue reading Unlocking growth

Media speculation about Labour’s housing priorities is helpful. If as suggested in The Sunday Times this morning they will make three housing policy announcements the first two I endorse. . Asking local authorities to review green belt land allocations to identify grey land is sound if the policy criteria they adopt in the review are … Continue reading Housing priorities

Last night’s BBC1 TV debate between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, from a housing policy perspective was useful. First it hardly featured, despite the crucial role local councils spatial policy play in promoting or impeding growth viz., pylons to distribute electricity for the next generation of clean cars. And second, the … Continue reading Conservative housing policy

The objective is enough homes. Plainly stated, enough new supply so house prices once again in a decade or two ahead become become affordable. Here is the direction of travel. Here is fairness. Here is economic growth. Here is control, in place of unforeseen haphazard outbreaks of building. But we have lost our way. Focus … Continue reading Housing targets, Conservative point scoring!

Shadow planning minister Matthew Pennycook on BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Thursday, 20 June highlighted the lack of mechanism for strategic planning to enable local councils to work together to deliver housing growth at scale. He is right to highlight the omission. His thinking must be applauded. But he faces big headwinds. It is … Continue reading Labour’s approach to strategic planning

In an interview.tonight with the BBC’s Nick Robinson Labour leader Keir Starmer says he will tell people who object to electricity pylons or housing. development near them they will have to see these plans go ahead.. I wish his prediction well. But he is wrong. His prediction is the first step towards another decade of … Continue reading Tough is insufficient

Is this possible? I mean Labour’s housing plan? Can it work? Labour is to announce locations for new towns and large urban expansions within a year of becoming the government. What happens when they do publish the new town sites? All hell will break out in these locations. Local councillors, especially the non-Labour ones; local … Continue reading Making Labour’s housing policy work

Wishing them success. Supporting the objective. Admiring their courage. All positive responses are not enough to endorse Labour’s plan to publish a list of new town sites within its first 12 months in government, in partnership with local people.The locations will selected by an expert independent task force appointed to ‘help choose the right sites’ … Continue reading Labour new towns policy. It is naive.

A rare event happened in the House of Commons today. The Prime Minister, in responding to the Langstaff report on the contaminated blood scandal covering a period twenty years, until around 1991 has offered the victims and their families an unequivocal apology for what he called a day of shame for the British state. Significantly … Continue reading Needs Thought?

The recent decision by the government to remove Lewis District Council’s planning powers and the reaction of the local council to this decision is a stark illustration of a deep rooted fracture in our planning system. Whose authority is paramount? The government whose legitimacy is they act in the national interest. Or local councillors who … Continue reading Local opposition to change