As Ed Miliband learned in 2015, it doesn’t matter how popular your policies are individually if voters don’t buy into your broader offer.
We should reward developers who seek to design locally distinctive schemes – which boost the economic and social confidence of the places where they’re built.
Building homes for the sake of building homes risks failing both present and future generations. Housebuilding targets are only a part of the equation.
We will break down barriers, improve skills, get more people into better-paying jobs, and ensure support reaches those that need it.
Government could buy the land at its agricultural value, grant planning permission, sell it on to developers at the higher price, and split the bonus between owners and communities.
Centre for Cities research has shown that, after controlling for differences in population growth, we are today missing 4.3 million homes that other European countries managed to build.
The alternative to stagnation is not turning the South of England into the next Houston or Tokyo. We need to choose where develops, and how.
Airbnb supports nationwide rules that help normal families while giving authorities the information they need to regulate short-term letting activity and clamp down on speculators.
The fifth article in a new series on ConHome about how government might be made smaller, taxpayers better off and and society stronger – through strong families, better schools and good jobs.
So some will say that his attack on Labour’s confusions and contradictions is pots and kettles. All the same, its contents are well worth assimilating.
Those of us concerned believed we needed some adjustment to the system; there is currently far too much dependence on greenfield sites.
Councils are won and lost through hard work, a consistent Conservative policy message, good campaigning, and good candidates. We must be so careful to avoid losing the mantle of the party of home ownership.
I understand that taking a hostile position can be justified on electoral grounds – just as it is certain that, in the short-term, there are votes (and even Ministerial advancement) to be had in opposing new build.
Full-fat planning reform may be off the table, but there are plenty of sensible interventions the Government could make before the next election.