I'm hearing rumours that some in the government want to kick start the economy by liberalising (ie weakening) the #planning system. A reminder: this has been tried umpteen times before and it doesn't work. 1/

1. Good planning aids development by providing certainty for developers.
2. It creates better places. Well planned areas (good design, space for nature etc.) create more wealth than poorly planned places. 2/

3. Development is more likely to be held back by lack of demand or inflated land prices or supply side difficulties (e.g. an outdated house building industry dominated by a few big players) than by planning restrictions. 3/

4. There is loads to do to retrofit& renovate existing buildings - see @GreenAllianceUK's recent report: https://bit.ly/2NjQUNP . This would create better places, more jobs, warmer homes... But VAT at 20% doesn't help. 4/

5. Planning is complicated. Clever think-tankers and special advisers seldom take the trouble to understand it.

6. The outcomes the planning system delivers - particularly the environmental outcomes and protection of countryside - are popular. 5/

The 2010 govt unleashed a big assault on planning ("the last outpost of Albanian Communism", E. Pickles) but after lots of sound & fury had to back off. The result was not more development overall, just more poor development in the wrong places. 6/

The planning system (like democracy) is imperfect, but a frontal assault won't work. It won't help the economy & it'll provoke a backlash. And it'll damage the environment, seriously undermining the government's nature and climate ambitions. 7/

We've been here before, let's learn some lessons from the recent past.

Much of this sorry tale is set out in my book, How to build houses and save the countryside. It's short, readable & there are one or two copies left. Go on, treat yourself: http://bit.ly/2CdD8GK  8/8