Right Wing Think Tank produces a report on the need to reform the UK land planning system, writes Alex Way.
The Policy Exchange, which describes itself as occupying a ‘centre-right’ position on the political spectrum, (some might say it is more right than centre), is a leading think tank which seeks to exert pressure on the UK polity. It provides research and proposals on a wide range of national issues, including housing (and by extension, UK land planning law). Indeed, given the rise in prominence of housing and land use planning in the media and in the country at large, The Policy Exchange has offered a range of proposals.
The point of departure for The Policy Exchange’s recent paper – “Better Homes and Greener Cities” –is that current UK land planning does not reflect the wishes of the population. That a balance must be struck in UK land development with respect to protecting the environment whilst providing for the population’s needs is not the point that is being made here.
The criticism levelled by the Policy Exchange is that current UK land planning law reflects the views of politicians and planners and that a nominal release of undeveloped UK land could yield substantial dividends in respect of better homes, greener cities and thus quality of life for the UK population. The report makes the point that some 90% of the UK land supply is undeveloped and that there is a need for carefully managed change in our approach to land planning.
Specifically, the report highlights that despite there being concrete evidence that Briton’s prefer to live in detached homes in the suburbs, current UK land planning law manifestly rewards applications for apartment blocks on UK land in urban areas (see the spate of such developments in the centre and on the outskirts of virtually every major UK city).
This then encourages ever greater numbers of people to set-up home on urban UK land, such that the majority of the UK population will enjoy fewer and fewer ‘green spaces’. The resulting decline in air quality and rise in obesity levels, according to the report, are matters about which we should all be extremely concerned. One solution to this would be to work towards encouraging ‘garden cities’ on urban UK land, which could be brought about through reforming the current land use planning system.
The specific changes proposed to the UK land planning system by The Policy Exchange are numerous. Firstly, the top-down, ‘plan-led’ approach currently in place governing property development on UK land is insufficiently responsive to local needs: it should be possible for residential property development to take place without needing to have been first anticipated in a plan.
Secondly, the entire emphasis in UK land planning law needs to be rebalanced: instead of a property development firm being obliged to demonstrate why a new development is needed, the onus should be on the land planning authorities to account for why such a development should not be granted land planning permission. This would be a profound change to the UK land planning system, but it is a change that has long been mooted by many firms involved in property development.
Other changes proposed in the Policy Exchange’s report relate to the need to vest far greater control in the hands of the local community with regard to land planning matters; to acknowledge that new development encourages economic growth; and finally, to relax the stringent controls on land use planning classifications. On this last point, the report suggests that giving UK land owners greater freedom to switch the ‘designated use’ of their land (eg from light commercial to residential) would bring greater dynamism to residential property development in the UK.
Given the current state of flux of the UK land planning system, perhaps there has never been a more opportune time to propose radical ideas to the Government, of the like contained in “Better Homes and Greener Cities”. However, whilst the Government has an appetite for change in UK land planning law, it is highly unlikely to adopt the proposals from The Policy Exchange lock, stock and barrel.
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