The public likes, but badly misunderstands, the anti-sprawl policy. It’s time to rethink it
The politics of it is fiercely contested. Since 2010 various Conservative prime ministers have tried to improve planning, to little success. Resistance in the party has been steady, but intensified in 2021 after the loss of a by-election in Chesham and Amersham, a once-safe seat. The Liberal Democrats won in part by playing on fears of predatory development.
Labour had opposed planning reforms as a “developers’ charter”. But Britain’s low growth rate is the main obstacle to a future Labour government delivering what itss aspire to, and therefore Sir Keir Starmer, the party leader, has embraced planning liberalisation. “We have to take this on,” he toldin a recent interview.
Britons agree the housing market is broken. Just one-quarter of adults in England surveyed in July by Ipsos, a pollster, forcalled housing in their area affordable for people like them. Real house prices are up by 80% in the past 20 years: the median price-to-income ratio has grown from five to nine times pay. In Oxford it is an eye-watering 12. Rates of home-ownership have fallen and around 300,000 households in England are homeless or at risk of it.
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