Listeners to the latest Private Eye podcast risk coming away from it believing it's possible to stop new houses being built on a local open space simply by getting up a petition.
I suppose it's London's domination of political media that leads to such odd beliefs being held by intelligent people,
The left is convinced that Nimbys stop all development. The right believes it's the planning laws that have that effect. Both are mistaken.
Come away from the capital to Middle England and you will find small towns surrounded by successive rings of new development and local council that are wary of turning down planning applications because of the costs they will pay if the developers win an appeal.
But holding simplistic beliefs means you needn't get to grips with deeper, harder questions. One example: is the security that people need when it comes to their home compatible with private landlordism?
And there are more such questions to be answered if you want to go in for a new building spree.
First, where will the skilled labour come from? The British building industry has long been complaining about shortages.
Second, how will you force developers to bring houses on to the market at a rate that reduces prices and thus their profits? Oliver Letwin is good on this.
These questions do sound difficult, so let's just mock Nimbys instead.
1 comment:
Many will be outraged by the scale of new housing coming to Leicestershire towns and villages over the next few years. Why shouldn't people want to protect their communities, roads, schools and local services from these massive developments?
As the Bank of England's senior economist recently indicated, 87% of new demand for housing is the consequence of immigration.
Whether we like it or not, sooner or later people will put the two together and it will have profound implications for political debate.
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