May 20 2007
Planning - how much do we need?
Next week we are told the government will announce an easing of planning controls over individual properties, where people wish to extend and improve.
I usually am the first to say "Yes" to any deregulatory crumb which any government lets drop from the groaning tables of bureaucracy. It is so rare for them to come up with anything which makes life a little easier for the law abiding who want some freedom to get on and do as they wish in a responsible way.
There is no doubt that the present planning system creates many problems. It often impedes or stops the householder from extending their property as they would like. It always slows it down and makes it dearer. It restricts the supply of building land, driving up the price. It gives to the lucky few who win the planning lottery to build?? homes on gardens and fields huge gains, preventing the rest from selling their land for development.
??Despite all these negatives the planning process is very popular with people who do not want to do anything with their properties, or who do not own any, as it protects large areas from change and from unsuitable development.
The government is trying to change the two ends of the planning scale - relaxing small improvements and speeding up large national projects.
Do bloggers approve? What controls, if any, would like on your right - and your neighbour’s right - the extend a house without public controls over how far and in what style?
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Planning makes Iraq look like a cake-walk. We are not building enough houses and the houses we are building are too small. How to reconcile this with peoples fear of “concreting over the country side” is tough.
A worthy experiment would be to create some large planning free zones with minimal rules. I would suspect the result would be far better than what could be planned by Whitehall or the Town Hall.
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I’ve never had any dealings with planning, but when my Dad extended his house I remember there were restrictions based on sunlight and our neighbours garden, which I can see the point of.
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Anything internal should, of course, be de-regulated. When it comes to external development, it’s a trickier issue. Does every homeowner have a right over the sunlight that enters their home? It’s not so much of an issue for detached houses, but would be a serious issue for owners of semi-detached housing.
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