Richard Patient, Managing Director of Thorncliffe | Your Shout said:
Our guess is that Reform will be fairly NIMBYish, but we can’t be certain. Reform UK didn’t put out local manifestos and their election leaflets are heavy on generic pledges to be accountable and improve services generally. Planning isn’t high on the issues motivating them.
The Reform UK general election manifesto last year was very strongly pro-development: “Reform the Planning System: Fast-track new housing on brownfield sites and infrastructure projects to boost businesses, especially in coastal regeneration areas, Wales, the North, and the Midlands”. However, many of their local leaflets tend to be anti-development – one Staffordshire candidate says “Oppose all developments in South East Stafford on open countryside and prime agricultural land”. Others pick on individual planning controversies to attack council administrations. They have also criticised developers trying to get out of affordable housing contributions.
Experience of UKIP and other similar parties is that they do very little to get their councillors to agree a common line. It’s only if there is a link to an established party policy – for instance renewable projects – are they likely to vote together.
Most of the Reform UK councils are upper-tier counties, where planning powers are limited. It’s only Durham and the two Northamptonshire unitary councils where they will have real planning powers.
