The 50 Shades of Planning Blog

I have been invited by the the team at Pocket Living to contribute to a policy paper containing the “boldest ideas for how we can accelerate the delivery of housing and infrastructure”. This is what I have sent them. (I was given 500 words. This is bang on 500 words.) Imagine that you have been appointed Minister of State for Housing & Planning and are working with your SpAds on a press release. ‘I am delighted to take on this role...’ ‘Good start, Minister.’ ‘I will ensure this Government gets things built…’ ‘Very good, Minister.’ ‘Recalcitrant local councils and litigious resident groups have stood in the way of progress for too long...’ ‘Steady on, Minister. We need something about communities being in control…’ Whisper it quietly, but the ‘localism genie’, let out of the bottle by the 2012 Localism Act, is being put back in. The press release that accompanied the recent publication of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was titled ‘Full steam ahead to fast-track more ...