Why we need to challenge the status quo in 2023

And so, 2023. Returning to work last week with the usual refreshed vigour a new year brings, I couldn’t ignore the side orders of caution and uncertainty that the experience of the last three years has added to the menu. How to respond in an industry that is so easily buffeted by the winds of economic and social difficulty?

Our new government seems to be responding to its own roller-coaster ride of the last six months by dialling down the rhetoric, presenting itself as economically competent and taking some tough fiscal decisions. Whatever your politics, you have to agree that some quiet calm is welcome.

This focus on getting on with the job over high-octane ideological politics may be a relief. But it would be a mistake if government shelved policies that require some political risk-taking simply because last year’s Truss-Kwarteng psychodrama has dulled the appetite for innovative change.

No-one would argue with the original point of establishing the green belt as a protection against lazy urban sprawl

Take the green belt. Meaningful policy development on the issue has become politically impossible, with nervous politicians closing ranks in a blanket defence of the status quo. This is the very definition of virtue-signalling, when what we need is a truly open debate on the merits of building on the green belt. 

But, talk about it we must. No-one would argue with the original point of establishing the green belt as a protection against lazy urban sprawl. But, as with a lot of these difficult issues, the reality of practical policy delivery today is more nuanced than the original policy envisioned.

There is much land, included within the geographical description of the green belt, that is not green at all and, if developed, would significantly improve the amenity, housing supply and success of the surrounding area. A blanket refusal from politicians to even consider anything technically within a green belt is short-sighted and bad policy-making.

All the housing architects I talk to complain bitterly that housebuilders don’t listen to them

As far back as 2015, the Centre for Cities suggested in a report that building housing on formerly developed sites in green belts - even just 5.2% of existing designations around the ten least affordable cities in the UK - could supply 1.5m new homes close to train stations.

But the industry that would deliver those 1.5m new homes is not in good shape and has a reputation to match. All the housing architects I talk to complain bitterly that housebuilders don’t listen to them and aren’t interested in delivering true quality design and build. They also decry the lack of long-term thinking about community building when the economics of the industry are so short-termist and supply-driven.

Policies put in place by the Thatcher government in 1979 to shift responsibility for delivering housing almost entirely onto the private sector are so entrenched as to still be driving the industry more than 40 years later. What should government do? 

How have we got ourselves into a situation where a blanket opposition to development is seen as a badge of honour for many local politicians?

Policy development that could change this is treated as nothing more than a Conference League political football – just consider successive Prime Ministers’ attitudes to the post of Housing Minister with its built-in revolving door. If you agree with me that decent, sufficient housing is one of the most important elements of our country’s infrastructure, this is nothing short of a scandal.

Our government is committed to more local decision-making about housing. How can that be a bad idea in principle? But without the right checks and balances and, crucially, investment in planning expertise and resources at local authority level, the result, particularly in small towns or rural areas, is to put power straight into the hands of anti-development activists who have the time and resources to organise, mobilise and lobby.

How have we got ourselves into a situation where a blanket opposition to development is seen as a badge of honour for many local politicians? Where is the debate about its role in delivering sustainable communities with decent affordable housing so that young people can stay close to their families, own their own property and work to contribute to the growth of local economies? It feels like madness.

This is no time to be taking our foot off the ideas accelerator

The Institute for Fiscal Studies reports that government spending on planning fell by nearly 60% in the ten years to 2020. You can understand the argument, when, in times of economic austerity, it’s a choice between child health, social care for the elderly and…planning officers. But it’s short-sighted and only serves to gut local authorities of the expertise needed to counter the unreasonable politics of nimbyism.

A report published in May 2022 by the planning consultancy Lichfields said that only 42% of local authorities in England had a fully-updated, adopted local plan. Is this the result of scarce resources, a lack of the political courage it often takes to deliver one successfully, or both.

This is no time to be taking our foot off the ideas accelerator. As we lift our faces to 2023 we should all be Tweeting, writing, lobbying, speaking and encouraging all of those with their hands on the levers of policy to be thinking big.