The Planning Problem – politicalbetting.com
The Planning Problem – politicalbetting.com
Simple problem, difficult answer
1
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The Planning Problem – politicalbetting.com
The Planning Problem – politicalbetting.com
Simple problem, difficult answer
Comments
Private school group starts hardship fund for parents after VAT raid
Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools says some families will use food banks as they try to keep their children at the school when the charge starts next month
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/private-school-starts-hardship-fund-for-parents-after-vat-raid-hp9pbqqrc
FPT It’s Retro Futurism (1951) - it’s the DeKhotinsky Sixteen Special (Roadster) from The Vortex Blaster.
In the Gemsbeck Continuum, in 1980 something, William Gibson pointed out that this was a vision of the future that had “All the sinister fruitiness of Hitler Youth propaganda”. 100% white, blond people….
The Process State is a system of outdoor relief for the upper middle classes.
You don't mention international experience - there are plenty of democracies with much better records on housebuilding than ours. Well, virtually all of them actually, but you could have started with France or Texas.
They mostly do this by allowing much more self-build - if you strip out self-built houses, most European countries would build about as many houses, or fewer, per head as we do. They account for 80% of new houses in Austria, and 60% in France and Germany. And it's noticeable that the one area of the UK that does have significant self-build, Northern Ireland, is the one where there is no significant housing shortage.
Facilitating that through the planning system by, say, designating significant areas of land in each county as available for self-build, would go a long way to solving our housing crisis and would also break the oligopoly of our big builders, that build crap and charge a fortune for it.
Self-build is not a panacea - it doesn't really work for blocks of flats in cities, and a whole new industry would need to come into being. And governments of all parties have been captured by the building industry, so it would face huge political opposition. But if we're serious about building the 8 million new houses we need to have as many per head as France, that's where we should start.
However, it was also the Rock upon which the Socialist State where the Bureaucrat knows best planted its ladder to heaven.
I served on Planning Committees for 24 years, 6 of them as Deputy Chair or Chair.
The answer is not to start from here.
But do not believe Planning is all bad, it does some good things. But by preventing a land owner from building a house on his land it has created an entirely artificial shortage of houses.
Some will say it has prevented slums being built. Well no, that was more likely the effect of Building Regs which are "a good thing". Some of the houses which Planning has demanded be built are too small, badly located, vile to live in, ghettoes of poverty.
Planning has created a specialism which adds nothing to the construction process with a mafia of MRTPIs. Some people say you should bribe members of the planning committee - no, it is the officers and the functionaries of the NIMBY pressure groups you need to bribe.
Planning results in bad things whether Poulson, Clay Cross or more recently Liverpool and half a world away in Tauranga in New Zealand.
If you are inclined towards buying the networking opportunities that an expensive education offers, sell the car, cancel Netflix and send the offspring to Malvern, Marlborough or Monmouth.
Deep means tested…
One of my daughter’s friends has a chronic anxiety issue - the one that’s been popping up in the news. Some say an effect of lockdown. Barely able to leave her room - it’s a diagnosed medical issue.
There is little or no help in the state system. So her parents are paying a small fraction of the full fees to go private. So that she will actually get an education - the school support for this is excellent. They are quite poor and can’t afford that and the huge bills for private psychiatry. But do it anyway.
The school has announced that it is holding down the prices for those on deep subsidies (more than 50%) by reducing freebies for the local state schools. So they will continue to get use of the swimming pool. But not have 4 members of staff from the school supervising and teaching for free….
On A_View_From_Cumbria's point, if 1947 is the touch point, I don't think it was immediate that housing went wrong - housebuilding was a strong driver of people "never having it so good" in the 50s and 60s, so what went wrong? Was it all Andy's accrual of precedent?
I don't know when you went to school, but I think that experience of the state school system have always differed wildly. I went to a state primary for a while, which was an unremarkable school, and then a middle school; again unremarkable, but a little rougher. Neither school was brilliant; neither terrible.
My oft-told story: I knew two men who grew up in a mining town in northeastern Derbyshire in the mid to late 70s. Both were not the most academic kids, and the teachers made it clear that it was pointless teaching them, as they would end up in the mines. Both did, and both suffered when the mines closed, going on the long-term 'sick'.
The state school system abandoned these kids, now men. So the experience of schooling was very different from mine, just a few years later, in a different area.
(These anecdotes were independently told to me.)
In 1948, say, no one would have presumed that not building anything was as option. That would have been considered insane and/or criminal wrecking.
Another question is why it wasn't such an issue in the 70s and 80s. I think it didn't matter too much when this country's population was broadly stable or slightly increasing, at least once the postwar housing shortage had been addressed. But when the population started soaring with uncontrolled immigration under Blair, we suddenly needed hundreds of thousands of new houses a year just to stand still.
Yet the Blair government, partly because of simple ignorance of economics, and partly because of their misreading of the experience of the housing bust of the early 90s, thought that high house prices were a Good Thing, rather than a sign of a wildly dysfunctional market in the country's largest most important asset class. And the Conservatives, captured by the NIMBY lobby, totally failed to address it.
So, we are where we are.
There are the odd occasions where we can sweep some of this away. New Towns are an obvious example as they have the advantage of starting with a clean(ish) slate and the various developments can be integrated. But generally we are adding to the existing systems and that means we all have a vested interest in ensuring that what is proposed is compatible with that.
In Scotland any large scale development tends to come with conditions which might be a new school or the money for one (in Dundee there are at least 2 examples of the local authority taking that money and not providing the school). I think society has the right to demand this too. Planning gain is all too real and it is right that the cost for society of the new development is funded out of it, at least to some degree. Of course the more you do this the more expensive the new housing becomes and we are once again back to the start of the circle.
The only material consideration of any consequience is the one as to how much you have paid those you need to bribe. In Liverpool about 10 years ago that was building a new office for the Labour Party as part of the deal. I know the whistle blower on that one. And the office was built.
One genuine brexit benefit I can see is getting out of the EU habitats Directive. I remember when I worked at defra we had to advise a minister that it would be illegal to expand a harbour because of some not all that rare species of seaweed found... he was furious and it was ridiculous frankly.
Personally I'd like to see the public sector deciding what buildings and infrastructure we want in our towns, not leaving it to private developers. It would need a significant skilling up/investment in capacity but
I feel that gets around some of the problems highlighted.
https://x.com/edconwaysky/status/1803850784536236444
Before *that* it was Assisted Places.
Before *that* when I was at my independent day school in the 1980s there were bursaries for a small number of pupils.
Here is the current scheme for my former school. As far as I can see they say 10% of places can receive means-tested bursaries. It covers up to 100% of tuition fees:
https://nottinghamhigh.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/document/Bursary-Scheme-FAQ-23-24-rjb.pdf
Perhaps wealthy thick kids being promoted at the expense of smart poor ones is why we find that governance and economic activity has been so ineffective over the last couple of decades.
Take the rebranding of Jaguar, I bet the thick twats who thought this was marketing genius were all indulged in a (probably low rent) private education.
A problem is the lack of proportionality. The Bat Tunnel was built because of a requirement that not one bat die. We don’t build railways on the basis of “not one human can die”. Sorry Batfink - your wings will need to do the work.
The problem is too many people who are more interested in being prissy about due process, rather than outcomes.
But I’m getting distracted. You need to empower planning officials to make decisions that are sensible. If you go down the route of restricting their judgement you create a rules based environment rather than a principles based approach
Got to confess, I'm bad at looking for work. Despite more experience it's harder now than it was in 2019.
Anyway, I chanced upon a job ad that seemed interesting. Go to apply. Have to sign up for yet another new site, but I need work so fine.
The signing up process is pretty damn simple. Name, e-mail, password, type of work sought etc.
And it fails. Why?
"Sorry, we couldn't verify that you're human. Please try again later."I'm more amused than pissed off by this. But it does rather sum up how the year has gone.
Edited extra bit: for those wondering, there was no captcha or similar check to do.
For a start how many of his "net dwellings" are Permitted Development Conversions from Offices, which are not known for being to adequate standards, and have been extensive since 2013?
And why do his stats start in 1970 - where the numbers had already significantly rolled off (graph at link - not using my quota for this) - and we were into high inflation and the oil crisis? And - yes - extensive "slum clearance" in that period, which was sometimes "we want a big project and this is in the way".
https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/House_building_since_1920s_NOV_17.png
This other graph from him in that thread is very interesting, showing that the Labour election target was lower than either the Tories or the Lib Dems.
Despite everything that gets complained about, we have the adults in the Government.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQiQaYUW4AArBP_?format=jpg&name=900x900
Leaping from one system entirely to another (whilst under our own system of common law/precedent and so on) is a big ask; I wanted to find a way to get that sort of thing going under the ruleset we have in existence.
Most things in life are.
I’m a fan of Masterchef so have been binge watching the most recent professionals series this week before Gregggg gets exposed for having done something beyond the pale and is fully cancelled.
On topic, very interesting header. If that doesn’t work, then one intriguing option is out there, and it’s something where we could learn from the Russians. Maybe the problem is we don’t have enough land. Perhaps we should consider some targeted annexation.
And we end up seeing that precedent build up and up and up, for understandable and decent reasons, causing more and more rules and boxes to tick to ensure consistency for understandable reasons and we end up skewing further and further away from trusting people and instead stuck with process, rules, and precedent to ever increasing depths.
This is why I think we not only need an audit and architecture of the processes now, we'll need the exercise carried out regularly again in future. This can pick out what's relevant and needed now rather than then and ensure it''s kept up to date.
Now we know...
Maybe it's worth it in the long run.
You can't just rock up and say i need some food?
Maybe I am wrong or out of date?
What a sorry state of affairs...
Thankfully, I live like a monk so my outgoings are minimal and I save way more than I spend so I'm not in dire straits or anything. It's just a bit shit.
On a related note, I'm thinking of doing more with my blog regarding F1, maybe adding audio content too.
Speaking of which, almost half of my winning tips this year have come in the last five races. Super-shit start, but recently things have been pretty good.
Mr. Mark, it's true, I'm the earliest convincing AI out there. Even paid some skinny guy to pretend to be me at the Ilkley gathering.
What Andy is proposing is something I have gone on about for a long time on here - the Dutch system. Councils buy the land, put in all the services and then sell the plots to individuals for them to either self build or get a builder to do it for them. It undercuts the developers, stops land banking and prevents land speculation. Developers can still buy a tranch of plots but they will then be insentivised to build on them ASAP as they will already have paid out for the prepared land and can't hold out to force the council to give planning permission for land outside the scheme.
Recruiters too are awful people.
I would hate to be job hunting.
Well worth a watch if you're interested in F1.
https://www.youtube.com/@MrVsGarage
Top Nicola Sturgeon civil servant who destroyed covid WhatsApp messages retired on £1.4m pension
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/top-nicola-sturgeon-civil-servant-34229739
I am so happy they will move to 4 days a week for no loss of pay. It is what they deserve for their hard work and diligence.
I was fortunate that, although I was in a working class council house estate, I was in the catchment area for a school that was in a rather affluent area.
I suspect had I been in an inner city comp a few miles down the road it would have been a different story.
Two comments. About the compexifying process state and law. Not all that long ago a lot of provincial, small town rural solicitors were generalists who covered a lot of the ground for clients. Now they narrowly specialise. You might do commercial leases but you couldn't even start thinking about a divorce settlement, drunk driver or alcohol licensing. This is a loss of an interesting group of people in small town and rural life, and it is quite recent. The ones I knew are retired or, mostly, dead.
Secondly, by far the single most effective step WRT planning is to stop artificially expanding the population of the state by massive numbers every year. The fact that the government refuses even to suggest a target for artificial population growth indicates it has no confidence in its powers.
The idea of Local and Neighbourhood Plans was that elected local councils set out where development could go and provided development occurred there planning cttees would then be required to approve it. Which ensured local input while reducing NIMBYISM
..and Sky News with their Middle Class women of a certain age, or should I say "hubble bubble toil and trouble" sisters.
By the end of the Thatcher and Major years in 1997 more pupils were in grammar schools than there had been in 1979
It seems to me to be part Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds inspired (aka FAB1), and part Tesla Cybertruck inspired.
As with most things, for the Cybertruck Elon Musk presents with borderline psychopathic tendencies. "F*ck you and your laws, your society and your welfare, I'm going to do what I want."
We don't need to worry about the Cybertruck. That's such a dangerous killing machine that it is never coming to Europe in quantity - even the current loboto-Conservatives aren't stupid enough to try that one on.
The problem I have with the Jag is that (like the Cybertruck) it's a design for Micropenis Man - someone inadequate who feels he needs a huge, expensive automobile to prove his manhood to himself, whilst not giving a damn about others. In the scheme of reality, the best description I can come up with for it is "unnecessary".
Fab 1 vs Jaguar Concept (my photo quota - took a bit of tweaking):
Where grammar schools remain eg Kent and Lincolnshire and Bucks and Bromley and Trafford and Rugby and Ripon and Poole it was almost entirely in areas and local authorities which were then Tory run
Example: in my ward, a landowner wants to work with the LA on a sizeable plot, intended to provide attractive homes, a big chunk of affordable homes, some self-build plots, and integrate seamlessly with the local infrastructure. It's taken years and is still going through early stages, because we have no short-cuts and much less funding than the big developers. There are other huge benefits to this way, many of which won't be readily apparent at a glance.
Firstly: the taking-the-piss element goes away (largely). In my examples of externalities, one stands out: the open-cast mine example. That's because that is the only one I haven't personally encountered on planning in my LA.
Secondly: conditions become meaningful if the LA operates them. We issue a bunch of conditions on most large planning approvals (operate at certain times, have a car-park on site so you don't seize up the local roads, don't block people in, don't dig up the archaeological barrow, that sort of thing). Developers have a habit of ignoring these, and when we try to enforce them, we have to "show all reasonable endeavours" to come to a non-legal resolution. By which time, they've finished, because that takes years. If the LA owns the site, they can enforce the conditions.
Thirdly: no need for management companies and payments for the public open spaces. These are becoming a bane, up there with the developers themselves. Residents are getting shafted and are rightly angry about it, and there's nothing we can do; we have no authority. The LA would own and operate the public open spaces, which is what people tend to expect. If the LA shaft the residents, the residents get to demonstrate their anger at the ballot box, and quite right, too.
Fourthly: if the infrastructure comes in under the LA's control, they can ensure roads get built to adoptable standards, sewerage is upgraded ahead of time, sports facilities are built on schedule (all of these examples from my own ward of NOT happening with developers, and with us having no power to do anything about it).
(Does your typical fee-paying day school include lunch in the fee or is that an extra?)
“Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time,” Trump said in a statement on Truth Social. “I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top diplomat, representing the USA to one of America’s most cherished and beloved allies.”
Stephens, who is CEO of private Arkansas-based investment bank Stephens Inc, donated millions to Trump’s re-election campaign this year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20e79nlpe6o
I bought The Vortex Blaster under its alternate title of "Masters of the Vortex". I still have a copy but it's too old to pick up now.
That is, Sir Jasper Quigley*, these days, may be a state educated, half Peruvian, half Welsh, second generation immigrant, but he is fundamentally the same.
*In the novel “The Day of The Jackal”, Sir Jasper is a civil servant in the Foreign Office. Who has got every single decision wrong in his career. But because he was a Sound Chap…
"So we must continue to back Ukraine and do what it takes to support their self-defence for as long as it takes.
"To put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations so they can secure a just and lasting peace on their terms that guarantees their security, independence, and right to choose their own future."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy89x13xle5o
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/22629/pg22629-images.html
So the chats between the new corruption commissar and him should be interesting. I wonder which junior official will be scapegoated instead.
Even by the Telegraphs standards this is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/labour-made-me-raid-my-pension-in-a-panic-now-i-can-t-reverse-my-decision/ar-AA1vaWCL?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=ba9a7206f5b943458e011f8d0477d360&ei=18
The only councils looking at 4 day weeks are doing so because it’s the only way they can recruit
One of the things Andy shows, as with all complex things, it is dead easy for us here (and some of us here are much worse than this that others, @leon I am looking at you) to rant and rave about stuff and spout simple solutions, when in reality (for those that know the detail rather than reading about it on some blog) know it is far far, far more difficult.
Living in a village that was recently taken out of the Green belt and consequently has had a little boom in house building which although not wanted has gone quite well. However it seems noticeable that houses are built without the consequential infrastructure. In the case here there is nowhere for the children to go to school. Although it was pointed out by many it was ignored. It is difficult to believe those making the decisions can be that stupid so the conclusion I come to is building a new junior and secondary school was just a bridge to far at the early stages. Wait until it becomes an emergency and then it has to be done. Am I being cynical?
PS falling rolls doesn't cut it. When you add all the villages together taken out of the green belt plus a new small town without a single new school place in an area already over subscribed it is a obvious problem.