No-one knows what to expect from Sunak and Gove on planning reform. In July the new PM said ’getting the consent for the number of homes we need is a challenge’; and he added that ’our cities (are) much less dense than lots of other places around Europe (it is) .easier there to build more houses’. Both statements are true. Encouraging? Well, he also said his aim will be to relax the duty to cooperate which, without another mechanism to drive cross-border cooperation is the end of strategic thinking. And he also thinks his government can force the pace of build out and control the issue of new permissions to locally active developers.
I nearly laughed. More than 50 years ago, as a greenhorn residential land buyer in Berkshire successfully buying or getting control of housing land, the ways and means to manage these threats were clear. Avoidance techniques and professional advisers are far more sophisticated now! When will Whitehall learn it can stop something happening, but it cannot make make something else happen. Land owners, developers and builders simple wait until the policy is reversed, which without cross-party cooperation is a dead certainty.
Actually there is a way. Local councils must take over ownership of the next generation of housing land. This means local leadership, long term policy consistency without electoral policy U- turns, cross-party cooperation locally and in Whitehall and of course spatial policies which ignore local council boundaries. Is this too radical? The wins are big: very little cost as the local communities who plan for two generations pocket LVC (land value capture, or hope value/development value); social and community wish lists blend with commercial incentives; popular open space at risk of building is protected by something better than a green belt label, by ownership. Spatial distribution of the new homes is in the gift of local councils. So too to a far greater degree is the delivery timetable.
What is the means? Two options exist. Either locally controlled new town development corporations, or locally controlled development companies. Messrs Sunik and Gove, please accept some intervention in the market can be a good news story. After 50 years of failure, it is clear the private sector needs to be reminded that the public sector, if it follows the place stewardship principles of England’s landed estates can do a far better job. To sum up; 1970-2020= housing failure; 2024-2084= urban success. Once the private sector sees a a cross-party supply of new housing sites on the horizon, in the mid-2030’s their strangulation hold on new supply will loosen and die.The outcome for our children and grandchildren will be transformational: the dead weight of heavy debt will decline.
Ian Campbell
28 October 2022
