News

Conservatives

In ‘Forward, Together’, Theresa May clearly hopes she has the manifesto with something for everyone. In looking at planning and development, she seems to think that her predecessor had it broadly right, and there are no fundamental changes in direction proposed – the Housing White Paper earlier this year having implicitly ditched the Cameroon obsession with home ownership at any cost. There are warm sentiments about housing associations and social housing. New is the idea of fixed term social housing to be sold on the open market after 10-15 years, and support for multigenerational homes. While the white paper wanted to nudge developers to implement permissions, the manifesto talks of council powers to intervene. The idea of high-density housing is again endorsed.

Developers may look with more concern at a friendly-worded remark about working with them “to capture the increase in land value” from development. The government thinks that public sector landowners and local communities should “benefit from the increase in land value from urban regeneration and development”. Little is said about giving councils more control over development, although it seems major applications for fracking for shale gas are to be removed to the national planning regime. Other sections of the manifesto commit to combine the Land Registry, Ordnance Survey and others to create open land data and help “digitise the planning process”; the Conservatives also commit to publishing “far more information” about planning applications online.

Labour

Its title may recycle a Blairite mantra, but Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour manifesto “For the many not the few” could never be confused with the new Labour era. The party’s ‘National Transformation Fund’ which will borrow £250bn over ten years for capital spending, including new housing. At least 100,000 new social and affordable homes per year are promised, and a million homes in total, overseen by a new government department. Pledges to prioritise brownfield and protect the green belt are followed by mention of a new generation of New Towns.

Labour complains that developers profit takes precedence over community priorities in planning decisions, though the remedy proposed seems to be more money for council planning departments. They suggest planning rules will be strict on minimum space standards and on energy efficiency, and that plans will have to provide for homes for the elderly. There is a firm pledge for the ‘agent of change’ principle affecting development near entertainment venues (London Mayor Sadiq Khan also supports it). Inserted at the last minute and not in the earlier leaked draft is support for a land value tax – an old idea with many respectable supporters.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrat manifesto ‘Change Britain’s Future’ unusually makes a pitch for opposition, rather than government. Reminders of populist measures brought in by Liberal Democrat ministers in 2010-15 don’t overcome the impression of a party seeking once again to rouse protest votes.

Few of the details on planning and development have changed from the 2015 manifesto. The party still pledges to set a housebuilding target of 300,000 a year, including ten garden cities, and funded by a housing investment bank. They believe a community right of appeal against planning decisions can be made to work. New pledges include powers for councils to penalise “excessive land-banking”, and to enforce housebuilding on “unwanted public sector land”. One small pledge hidden in another section seeks to bring in planning rules to protect live music venues.

Our local council website http://localcouncils.co.uk/ is up to date following the local elections. Unlike other sites, we update it weekly, to take defections and byelections into account.

9.30am Friday 5 May

You may think that the political story of the week is Diane Abbott’s maths, Juncker’s dinner fall-out, or Theresa May’s (undiplomatic) speech outside No 10, but for me it’s all the individual stories of councillors being elected last night and today. Stories like my colleague Barry, who’s just been re-elected as a Northumberland councillor, and the likely win later today of my colleague Stuart in Leicestershire.

With only 10 out of 34 English councils having been completed and declared overnight, 13 out of 22 in Wales, none in Scotland, and the results of most of the new metro Mayors being announced this afternoon, the conclusions of the local election results yesterday can only be an indication, but some patterns are clear.

The Conservatives are probably on course for a landslide in a month’s time, having made gains in all types of authority, including taking control so far in Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and the Isle of Wight.

UKIP has so far lost every seat it was defending, although its spokesman still claimed this morning that it was a major force in local government.

The Liberal Democrat’s hope for a rapid advance in the south west of England has been stymied, losing seats in Somerset and not getting through to the final two in the west of England Mayor (which was won by the Conservative’s Tim Bowles).

Labour has so far gained no seats in England, though party bosses are claiming that losses in south Wales have not as bad as some feared.

In Northumberland, the Conservative’s failed to win overall control of the council when the Liberal Democrats won a drawing of straws against the Conservative candidate in a tied vote.

The week started with Juncker’s 5 minute EU Council love-in on Saturday. Despite claims from The Times’ Bruno Waterfield just a day before that the PM would cave in to the negotiating demands of the EU, Theresa May was bounced into reiterating her stance not once, but twice this week, that “no deal was better than a bad deal”. Up until then, her civil servants (and perhaps David Davis) had thought they wouldn’t need to prepare for a disorderly exit from the EU. But with no decision likely on the deal to be made until midnight on the day of the deadline (or perhaps 3am, knowing the EU), the UK and its civil servants know they can’t bluff Junker. That means an awful lot of extra work for civil servants over the next year.

Referendums have been getting a bit of a bad name for themselves this week. There’s growing realisation in the main parties, and particularly the Lib Dems, that offering to repeat the EU referendum as either a sign of democracy or a denial of last year’s vote (choose your preference) is not going down well with the voters. It’s the same in Scotland with a YouGov survey showing 49% of Scots shunning a new independence vote. Voters, apparently, are fed up of bickering, strife, backstabbing and angst – and that’s just within their own families. And with the Lib Dems campaigning hard in the Remain territories of south west London (Richmond, Twickenham and Kingston & Surbiton), this realisation combined with last night’s vote, may be unwelcome news.

The Rochdale Herald reports the Daleks are replacing their Exterminate slogan. #STRONG AND STABLE. #STRONG AND STABLE. #STRONG AND STABLE.

Richard Patient, Managing Director, Thorncliffe

Thorncliffe is a leader in planning communications. In the last week, we’ve had planning approvals in Lambeth, Kingston, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hillingdon and Harrow.

In the last few months, we’ve had approvals in Barnet, Elmbridge, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lambeth, Newham, Richmond-upon-Thames, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Welwyn Hatfield. Last week, we had approvals on four schemes.

As the general election begins, MD Richard Patient shares some thoughts about the next eight weeks.

We’ve been chosen as finalists for the PR Moment awards for our scheme with Galliard Homes’ AFC Wimbledon project. The award is for best practice in stakeholder engagement. Here’s hoping we win!