Duty to cooperate has failed. The Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill will, is the claim, encourage local councils to think about their neighbours needs. Why will this pious wish succeed better?
Left to themselves most councils with a serious housing deficit will do nothing. Few voters support new homes near them. Those living locally know the downsides exceed the upsides. Housing is, as they say, a wicked issue. Avoid it, is the attitude of veteran local leaders.
Can this mind-set be reversed? Until it is reversed, whether the housing is beautiful or not, the result will the lowest common denominator solution. If local councils themselves are the land owners a reversal of attitudes is possible. With ownership comes the possibility to deliver spatial control, timing, beauty and up to 100% land value capture, if these powers and development control powers are all in the same hands. Adjoining councils will have new incentives to cooperate across borders with visions for the next generation.
This change gives real power to local leaders to build better.
Ian Campbell
15 October 2022
