Incompatible Planning?

 

It's interesting that two articles, in close proximity in the same journal, should arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions about issues that are essentially linked. Polly Toynbee sees signs of hope 'inside Labour's top-secret plan for new towns'. This is part of a UK drive to build more housing to satisfy parts of its electorate. There have been complaints about the inability of young folk to 'get on the housing ladder'. Toynbee suggests that, 'with visions and patience', some of the previous housing planning mistakes can be avoided. Certainly, some of the earlier attempts to replace 'slum dwellings', with shiny communal housing blocks, simply didn't work. These new buildings rapidly became the new slums (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/24/labour-top-secret-plan-new-towns-hope). In stark contrast, George Monbiot decries Labour's proposed changes in house building planning as the 'great nature sell-out'. He regards these changes as the 'worst attack on England's ecosystems'. Monbiot's basic complaint is that, in an effort to encourage house building, many environmental protections are scheduled for removal. Building may be allowed in the green belts around cities, in areas with designated protections and in locations where environmental impacts have not been carried out. Many of the changes appear to be from the wish-lists of major house building company CEOs. There appears, he says, too much reliance on 'compensating' for damage in other locations  (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/24/labour-nature-england-ecosystems-planning-bill-keir-starmer). There's certainly said to be a popular demand for more 'reasonably-priced' housing, in the right locations. House builders are, however, in the business of maximising their company profits. They build with sales in mind. The trouble is that UK folk have been sold the idea that, becoming a house owner, is a 'passport' to economic freedom. The rental sector is expensive, relatively insecure and often of poor quality. The UK is relatively small and crowded. It could make better use of its existing housing by a) giving more property to Housing Associations; b) improving the rental market and c) financially encouraging folk to 'downsize, when their families have moved away. Perhaps the focus should be on houses as somewhere to live, rather than being financial investments. The UK is already Europe's most environmentally impoverished country. It needs viable ecosystems to maintain the health of its populations.