May 2023 local elections demonstrate the deep rooted opposition to local change. There is growing conflict between local fears and national needs. New mechanisms to balance and resolve these clashes are overdue.
Local council elections on 4th May 2023 have thrown intense light on the widespread anger and resentment in many local areas held by local electors compelled by government housing targets to release local sites for new homes. The frustrations are cross-party. Theresa Villiers 50+ rebel Tory MP’s erupted at the end of last year. Nearly ten years ago I vividly remember how effectively Reading’s Labour councillors skilfully turned my competition essay for a new community south of Reading into a local threat by an imagined developer to destroy their community. And a month ago the newly elected Liberal Democrat leader of Brentwood Borough Council, councillor Barry Aspinell made his position on housing very clear, citing the ‘government’s insane demand for housing in the South East’. He added
”When large scale development is allowed, and little regard for the protection and improvement of our environment is shown, the borough, it’s residents, sustainable businesses and its open countryside all suffer and will be affected for generations to come”.
Councillor Aspinall and his party won a local election. His views cannot be ignored.They are endorsed by the local electorate. But, and this is the tragedy, his local party and the residents opposed to change are wrong. New homes, new places to go, some man-made and some newly opened up open countryside, new modes of transport and for Brentwood’s next generation homes they can afford can all be provided with local support. The proof is not easy to see, but the clues lie here and there. Poundbury with its 30% premiums is one example. The popular, high value landed estates of inner London or Edinburgh new town are others. The open countryside the residents of Berkshire and Surrey enjoy walking across Windsor Great Park, green belt land you can enjoy, unlike the remaining 90%+ open countryside in England, but privately owned and no access, bar the occasional footpath is another post-covid clue.
The snag is creating places of appeal take time, requires foresight and above all cannot happen without widespread local support. Brentwood’s new leadership understand the threats.Do they have visions, or master plans of this sort on their agenda. And if not? The pressures for change are not going away, in every popular area intense debate is needed: how is the right balance going to be detected? There will be local conflict between those who oppose local change and those who do not. There will be national conflict between the growth and productivity needs of the nation, and local fears of the unknown. After all it is local residents who live with the results. Those in power in London do not.
Is the planning system is broken? Or is it unable to provide the certainty local electors want? Conflicting priorities exist. New mechanisms to balance local and national needs; public and private expectations, and generational precedence are missing. They are needed now as part of the planning and housing debate.
Ian Campbell
4 June 2023
