Probably Not.
Every few years, something strange happens to my inbox.
A Prime Minister announces that Britain will build more homes. The planning system is going to be reformed. Red tape will be cut. Brownfield land will be unlocked. Decisions will be quicker. Britain will, inevitably, be “building again.”
And within days I start receiving emails from homeowners and developers.
“I saw that the government is changing the planning rules. Does this mean we can build the house now?”
I’ve been around this long enough to have developed a standard response:
“Probably not.”
Because I’ve heard all this before.
In fact, I have begun to wonder whether planning reform is Britain’s longest-running political announcement.
David Cameron’s government announced “radical changes” to planning and said the default answer to development should be yes.
Theresa May launched a “major overhaul” of the planning system to deliver 300,000 homes a year.
Boris Johnson announced “Build, Build, Build” and what Downing Street called “the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War.”
Rishi Sunak promised to “unblock the planning system”, cut red tape and make it easier for homeowners to extend upwards and outwards.
Keir Starmer arrived promising to “get Britain building again”, to overhaul planning, and to deliver 1.5 million homes.
And now Burnham is reforming the planning system and promising more homes.
Again.
This is not an argument that nothing ever changes. Planning policy changes constantly.
That may actually be part of the problem.
What seems remarkably resistant to change is the outcome.
And planning is only a small example. The same language surrounds defence, infrastructure, health and education. New governments arrive. New targets are announced. New strategies are launched. New eras begin.
So my extended standard response is now: Probably not; they always say that.
All the best
This Week’s Links:
No government in half a century has built 300,000 homes every year
Now this is interesting camouflage.
Norwegian Wood – a house not the song
