Britain is set for its worst recession in 100 years thanks to Covid-19’s relentless economic onslaught, according to the Bank of England. But the government has missed an open goal to help ease the fiscal pain in its much-trailed radical shake-up of our antiquated planning system.
Aside from headline announcements such as all new streets having to be tree-lined, the planning shake-up has a gaping hole in it – where is the vision for business?
The answer is that there isn’t one. Robert Jenrick and the government need to go back to the drawing board and urgently fix this, because otherwise this is going to cost us potentially billions in growth at a time when it is needed more than ever.
And this is especially true in sectors like tech and science where this country is already a world leader, and which could shape our post-Brexit future and help stimulate recovery from the pandemic-induced recession.
Billions left on the table
The current planning system has been strangling employment growth for years now in our knowledge corridors like the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, which plays host to a wealth of life science companies. The current fixation is housing, housing and more housing – and that is simply not serving a rapidly changing economy.
Sadly, the planning shake-up does little to address this. That’s leaving billions of pounds worth of long-term sustainable growth and thousands of jobs on the table.
These firms’ contribution to our overall economy cannot be underestimated, with the UK’s Office for Life Sciences finding the sector contributes £76bn to the economy every year and employs approximately 250,000 people.
Research from WIP for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) expects these sectors to add £8.5bn in annual growth to the UK economy by the year 2025, along with 31,450 new jobs. Without true reform, this promise will forever be unfulfilled.
The Oxford-Cambridge Arc is an excellent microcosm of both the promise and the problem. Its knowledge-based economy is home to some of the UK’s most innovative life sciences and tech firms who specialise in various industries such as aerospace, future transport, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and aviation. Industry giants such as AstraZeneca, Apple and Microsoft already call the region home.
However, growth is being diminished by punitive and outdated planning laws which have led to lab rents rocketing by a quarter year-on-year to historic highs. That’s pricing innovative firms out of this market that should be thriving.
And now the government’s continued refusal to countenance any freeing up the green belt for residential and commercial development risks stunting the growth of our fastest growing towns and cities, like Oxford and Cambridge, which will be vital for our post-pandemic recovery.
Britain at the crossroads
We have consistently called for the government to centrally designate brownfield sites in the arc for the development of lab space, which will boost the region’s economy over the long-term and help prepare the UK against future pandemics. It would have been welcome to see this happen as part of this planning shake-up. While the arc could act as the test case, this could easily be replicated across the country in other knowledge corridors.
Britain is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads thanks to the black swan of Covid-19. We are nearing the end of furloughing, with mounting job losses from other employers like retail being announced every other day, and stark warnings about a return to 1980s style unemployment while we face an economic crisis.
It is a huge oversight to not look to address the fact that the planning system – even if it is reformed as it currently is planned to be – will still fail to help deliver big-ticket infrastructure and housing projects which will help drive the UK’s knowledge-based economies by connecting communities and providing a place to live and work, while also addressing economic regional disparities which are the worst of any comparable developed country.
Just when this country urgently needed to cut the red tape and help business lead us out of the economic quagmire, the government has fudged it. Its latest so-called shake-up of the planning system leaves enterprise in the cold and on the sidelines.
Mike Derbyshire is head of planning at Bidwells
