The writer is a planning barrister who posts on planning law and policy at planoraks.com
The battle over reforming the English planning system gets fiercer each week. The UK government is trawling through thousands of consultation responses to its planning white paper, which promises radical reform following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pledge to “build, build, build”. Its aim is to pare back, digitise and slim down the planning system.
Yet, in recent weeks we have seen Westminster rebellions brewing, forced U-turns and — worst of all — even talk of “mutant” algorithms, which, it is said, will scar the country forever by abolishing age-old distinctions between built-up and rural areas. What on earth is going on?
Mr Johnson promises these reforms are radical, necessary and unlike anything the country has seen since the second world war. “Not more fiddling around the edges,” he declared, in the white paper, “not simply painting over the damp…