According to the December 2024 English Devolution White Paper spatial development strategies are to be introduced to all of England. Typically the strategic areas will contain populations of about 1.5 million. It looks like a return to strategic planning. This is a welcome change of direction and overdue since David Cameron’s coalition government abolished strategic planning in 2011. I ought to be delighted and I am pleased. But big doubts exist. I will reflect.
My first question is will the other political parties pledge their support for SPS’s at the next election? This really matters. Because if either the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrat commit to a policy U-turn on strategic planning at the next election, they will cut this policy off at the knees. It will be a worthless pipe-dream as the land market will discount every government claim for change that relies on SDS’s. So the government need to bottom out this crucial unknown urgently. Until there is a cross-party alignment deep-rooted scepticism throughout the property market will remain. It matters too. The market can make, or undermine these initiatives.
My next question is more or less the same, but this time the audience I ask is different. It is at local council political parties. It is worth remembering that for nearly forty years local ideological divisions have blocked local growth in popular areas. Why will local councillors co-operate if a large part of their local power is going to be significantly diluted, if not completely removed? Spatial divisions are understandable at local level, but political ideological differences have no role in creating and delivering spatial policies. But is this understood? And let’s go further. Will ideological differences be used to claim democratic damage, whilst forgetting national policy priorities ought to trump local conflicts. This naughty use of the wrong words by local lobby groups has help back spatial progress, damaged the nation’s economic growth and created false divisions in local areas.
And finally, how will local land-owners respond? It depends. Will they be advised they will richer quicker or poorer faster? Because their fear the value of their land will collapse if hope value evaporates as the SPS’s take centre stage. And it might. This uncertainty matters a great deal. I would like to know what the government policy towards the land market post SPS arrival will be. To avoid the hidden but expensive traps waiting to receive naive leaders, some clever, shrewd and long term thinking is needed to avoid the traps.
Despite these doubts, two hurrahs! I hope my doubts are wrong.
Ian Campbell
27 January 2025
