Boris Johnson’s ‘planning revolution’ is just recycled gimmicks

If there were easy answers to Britain’s housing problem, governments would have acted on them by now. Yet new prime ministers feel they have to be seen to be doing something, says John Rentoul

Robert Jenrick's white paper promises to cut red tape over planning permission for building new homes (Getty)

Once upon a time I compiled a Top 10 list of recurring news headlines, including “Fifty-five-year library loan returned: library staff amused and no fine levied”, “Ed Miliband calls for full independent public inquiry” and “World’s oldest person dies.” I could have added: “Government announces overhaul of planning system.”

The reason this story comes round again and again is that the housing problem in Britain is complicated and the law on planning permission particularly so. There are no easy answers, or governments would have acted on them by now, yet new prime ministers feel that they have to be seen to be doing something. Every time, it is the “biggest shakeup of the planning system for decades” as the government promises to “cut red tape” and “unlock” land that has been “hoarded”.

The promise to slash red tape is a reliable indicator of a non-policy. I am reminded of a Conservative publicity stunt when they were in opposition in the 1990s: they wanted to stage a real bonfire of regulations on the beach at their annual conference in Bournemouth – but they were stopped because it was against the regulations.