growth

5 ways for the government to keep the good in planning

This article originally appeared in the Local Government Chronicle.

Two months in, there is no doubt that Labour are committed to delivering on their manifesto promises to “rip up the rule book on planning”. The new government have placed planning reforms at the heart of their mission to drive growth, proposed a Planning and Infrastructure Bill in the King’s Speech and, barely two days after their landslide victory, announced a consultation on a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

When complete, the new NPPF will act as a guide for local planning authorities and developers by outlining the government’s planning policies and how they should be applied locally. And, even within the language of the consultation, we can read the runes on where the government places the blame for the lack of delivery on housebuilding and infrastructure projects in the UK. “Our antiquated planning system delays too many [development] projects, stymieing Britain’s ability to grow its way to prosperity”, it reads. But, in setting its sights on the system itself, is the government overlooking an important piece of the puzzle?

Read More

Planning for human welfare

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

Years ago I asked a planner what it would mean to develop a plan which prioritised human welfare. He responded by arguing that what his place really needed was some new humans because the humans they did have were too poor, too unqualified, too sick…which was why there were executive homes on greenfield sites, to “drive growth”.

I have been reminded of this conversation in recent weeks as planning reform has headlined Labour’s mission to boost economic growth. The current planning regime is being presented as a major brake on growth which needs reform in order to support the development of housing and infrastructure.
“cut it down to size”
But isn’t that what the Conservative government argued in their reform of the national planning policy framework back in 2011? Eric Pickles called planning a “drag anchor” to growth and promised to “cut it down to size”.  During the last fourteen years we’ve seen the ability of planners to negotiate social and economic outcomes including good design, affordability and infrastructure for communities systemically squeezed. At the same time the power of developers to get what they want has expanded – along with their profits.

Read More

Right place and time for change

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

This week all eyes will be on the Autumn Statement. While the headlines will likely focus on questions of tax and public funding on the national level, the question of whether local government will receive any relief from more than 13 years of austerity will probably not make the cut.

Yet the systematic defunding and devaluing of local government is – I would argue – one of the reasons why there are growing levels of poverty, hardship and destitution, creating huge vulnerability in places across the UK, generating significant pressure in the NHS and in social care and undermining the potential of local economies. For decades, every chancellor has stood at the dispatch box and argued their plan is the one that will set this country on the path to prosperity for all. That they will deregulate, bulldoze, cut through regulation, look under stones in the pursuit of growth. Few are bothered about the quality of the economy they are nurturing, merely the upward trajectory. Often the most important question is missed: who benefits?
“The gap between those who have least and most is growing”
Take Greater Manchester, for example, where recent CLES research shows the city region’s economy has more than doubled since 1998. Yet a third of children live in poverty, there are 16,000 live applications for social housing and 390 neighbourhoods are among the most deprived in the UK. The wealth of the average Greater Manchester resident, including property and other assets, is around £84,400 while the 11 richest individuals in the city region have a combined wealth of more than £9.3bn. The gap between those who have least and most is growing year-on-year.

Read More

Growth = wealth? Not for everyone.

Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer will stood at the dispatch box and argued that his plan is the one that will set this country on the path to prosperity for all. He’s not the first. He almost definitely won’t be the last. And yet here we are.

The climate emergency, austerity, growing inequality and political inertia mean that across the UK and beyond, many people and their families are struggling to make ends meet.  These are not new crises. And yet, for decades Chancellors have set out the ways in which they will deregulate, bulldoze, build, cut through regulation and overturn every conceivable stone in the pursuit of growth. Few are bothered about the quality of the economy they are nurturing, merely the upward trajectory. Often the most important question is missed: who benefits?

Read More

Growth for growth’s sake?

Policymakers should focus on building an economy that generates good lives, not just GDP.

This article originally appeared in the New Statesman. 

Labour’s proposals to fight the next election on economic growth were cleverly timed to help put the Tory leadership candidates on the back foot ahead of the public debate in Stoke-on-Trent this week.

Read More

  • Latest regional GDP figures: ‘levelling up’ has its work cut out

    13 Feb. 2020