What, you may be saying, is this to do with Trafford. Well insofar as Trafford is part of England and this White Paper is clearly part of the ongoing government agenda designed to gradually kill off local government in England, then it affects us all. Sorry to be getting all high horse again, but this is important and not the kind of thing that mere mortals such as us tend to get involved in – after all, it doesn’t sound very interesting. But if you value democracy – local and national – then we are in seriously worrying times.
As a planner, this particular area of government is of keen interest to me and, trust me, (what am I saying, I’m a planner!) this white paper, whatever Boris (aka Dominic) and Jenrick say – you can throw their words to the four winds – is little more than a developers’ charter. The weasel words about involving the public more in planning is a con! You will have less say on the truly important matters that will affect your lives and homes. For fear of putting you off completely, I’ll go through the white paper in more detail very soon, but for the time being, I would urge you to at least have a look at the Forewords by Boris and Jenrick (in ‘Planning for the Future’ by MHCLG). They seem reasonable, except that they spend all their time blaming planning for the mess our housing market is in – its another example of everything being everyone else’s fault. I’ve already given my thoughts on this particular subject in Blog 2, but there will be more to come – and that’s a threat.
In the meantime, check out the meaningless piffle that Boris uses in his foreword. He’s trying to say that the planning system needs to be completely rewritten, but he can’t resist using his jovial bluster and banter to try to show what a clever bloke he is. Actually he is a very dangerous buffoon and worryingly manipulated by Dominic Cummings. Laugh at him at your peril. Here is an example of his childish attempt to explain to us dimwits how the planning system is failing.
‘Designed and built in 1947 it has, like any building of that age, been patched up here and there over the decades. Extensions have been added on, knocked down and rebuilt according to the whims of whoever’s name is on the deeds at the time. Eight years ago a new landlord stripped most of the asbestos from the roof.’
I don’t know whether Boris pre-dated Trump’s verbal diarrhoea or whether he has modelled his version on it. He clearly says the first thing that comes into his head, and this little diatribe makes absolutely no sense at all.
Or take this example from Robert Jenrick:
‘Our proposals seek a significantly simpler, faster and more predictable system. They aim to facilitate a more diverse and competitive housing industry, in which smaller builders can thrive alongside the big players, where all pay a fair share of the costs of infrastructure and the affordable housing existing communities require and where permissions are more swiftly turned into homes.’
This from a man who is a multi-property-owning millionaire who broke the lockdown (a la Cummings) and has recently been found guilty by the Court of Appeal for ‘apparent bias’ in overturning a Planning Inspectors decision and rushing through a housing permission for one of the Tories mates in such a way that around £50 million in developer’s contributions could be avoided. It stinks, and it’s the way things tend to operate with this cabinet. Instead of resigning, Jenrick merely expressed sadness that he had effectively been caught out. How can such people be trusted? And he has the gall to say that he wants smaller builders to thrive. He only has eyes for the big guns – helping most those who can help the government, which is the main thrust of the White Paper.
This White Paper must be resisted. More to follow.
Traffordnorthend 