Just before Christmas, the Tories came up with the concept of street vote development orders, a new route to planning permission that will give residents the ability to propose development on their street and, subject to meeting certain requirements, vote on whether the development should be given planning permission.
Of course, it’s a bit late in the government’s timetable, so they’re unlikely to have legislative time to introduce it before a likely Labour government come in during the autumn.
But it got us thinking – is it something the development industry should be afraid of? Should we be scared of voters saying “no” to our carefully prepared, very expensive, schemes?
The answer, as you’d expect from the company that operates YES! is absolutely no. You should not be afraid of the voters.
Sure, there are plenty of NIMBYs. But we’ve shown recently that local people want development, and it’s just a case of finding them, and getting them to put pen to paper.
Over the past few months, we’ve found 600 supporters for a scheme in RBKC, about 100 for a scheme in Brentford, about 50 for a scheme in Slough, 300 for a scheme in Leicester, 90 for a scheme in Bristol, and 1900 for a cross-border scheme in Merton and Wandsworth.
So next time you worry about the people saying no to your scheme, just pick up the phone to YES!
Whatever the challenge, we’ll say YES!
