There are a few things that Jacob Rees-Mogg and Jeremy Corbyn agree on. One is that our planning system is not working, so it is disappointing that the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) kicks the ‘too difficult’ can of meaningful reform further down the street.
In 1977, Olivia Newton John sang a love song, Making a Good Thing Better. Forty years later, Labour has just published its own version: a green paper that could be subtitled ‘Making a Bad Thing Worse’.
Sajid Javid is still talking of fixing our broken housing market. The market isn’t broken: it’s reacting correctly to the broken planning system: supply is restricted, so prices go up.
Sajid Javid has described the housing market as “broken”. Broken from decades of a planning system destroying the supply-side of the supply/demand balance, pushing up prices so that many first time buyers are middle-aged.
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