COMMENT We all bundled around to the Institution of Engineering and Technology in Savoy Place, WC2, this morning to hear prime minister Theresa May launch the reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework.
It was a bit of a bun fight, at least at the start, with about 300 planners and tame industry types, as well as about 50 in the press corps. And it was an act of great collegiate partnership on the part of the government toward the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) with whom the event was very much co-run.
It is always risky for HMG to entrust any event organisation to a third party, but it did pay off in this case. There was even a rather charming moment when Reece Lemon of Savills, the Royal Town Planning Institute young planner of the year, came up to introduce the prime minister, saying: “This is not my normal activity for a Monday morning” and “it is quite surreal”.
As you can imagine, this went down very well with the assembled planning elders. (As an aside I will say that the RTPI would do well to capitalise on this moment and begin a decisive journey on the long road to rehabilitation of the planning profession, including tackling the universal lack of market savvy, not to mention their ageing profile! But let’s see if they can seize the day.)
There can be no doubting the prime minister’s intent or commitment. At one point she said: “The size of the challenge is matched only by my ambition to tackle it” and clearly she means it.
If it were down to me, I would flush out all nimbys (the “haves”) and ask them to account directly to those priced out of the housing market (the “have-nots”) with some concrete solutions
It was a good speech. But I can’t say we learnt anything particularly new. Most of it has been entirely anticipated for weeks, although perhaps was none the worse for that. And anything of any moment (the Brain Belt stuff) had been extensively trailed in the weekend newspapers.
The HMCLG press release led with the inarguable “Maximising the use of land, strengthened protections for the green belt and a greater emphasis on converting planning permissions into homes” to be at the heart of new planning reforms.
So by putting it up front, the department is clearly hoping to neatly sidestep any question of jeopardising the green belt – and getting the Daily Telegraph readers frothing at the mouth all over again – with the PM asserting that “less than 10% of the UK is built on”.
Well, we’ll see if that works. If it were down to me, she mutters militantly, I would flush out all nimbys (the “haves”) and ask them to account directly to those priced out of the housing market (the “have-nots”) with some concrete solutions. I’d personally like to confront the lot of them. I think the nimbys have held sway in this debate for far too long. In the main, they are merely selfish and reactionary. And they are more than partially responsible for such large sections of our community feeling left out and disenfranchised. Not to mention Brexit. But you’d better not get me started.
This morning was, all in all, a most worthy first outing for the new NPPF. Much was made of the “assertive and muscular” new Homes England agency (don’t forget readers, you read that here first) and much about the improved housing numbers, albeit with an honest admission that “although significant progress has been made, we must do more to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s”.
At one point the PM trotted out the lovely old line that “people can’t live in planning permissions” and we had more than a few moments on homelessness, as well as on rental market controls, which are hardly relevant. But hey! The dear old BBC couldn’t help itself and had to ask about Brexit (I told you not to mention that) but most people present, press and planning professionals alike, wanted to engage in the substance of the reforms, rather than score points.
It is a good start, and no mistake, for the government. And the RTPI had a good day. It was a grown-up debate in the room among people who care passionately about the future of planning. But, as ever, the devil is in the detail.
■ Consultation runs until Thursday 10 May. Read the full document here
See also:
■ Big changes planned for NPPF
■ May to slam developers’ bonuses in planning speech
To send feedback, e-mail jackie.sadek@ukregeneration.org.uk or tweet @jackiesadek or @estatesgazette
