Osborne and Pickles defiant on planning reform

TomTom

I shall miss Eric Pickles though I won't miss Osborne. What will they do ? Either the policy changes or they are headed for the Back Benches if not Opposition in Perpetuity.....they should stop being patsies for EU Policy

Pettros

This is not a fight they can win i'm afraid with out serious politcal damage. Just looking at reactions from other forums people are linking the recent increase in immigration to the need to develop green spaces and are getting angry.

Axstane

They are not defiant. They are firm. Every government initiative comes under criticism since there will always be opposite interests. Talk about "concreting over the whole of south-East England" is just plain silly.

In my lifetime I have seen Slough, Crawley and Milton Keynes arise out of nowhere. My first aircraft landing in the UK was at Blackbushe Airport.

More people means more housing is needed but I doubt that there will be wholesale influx of City workers to isolated developments in Cornwall or Gloucestershire - the inordinately high train fares will ensure that.

Romantically Hard + Heartless Perry

Osborne and Pickles defiant on planning reform

Well then, shame on them! Fools both! Let battle begin!

And I had put my remaining hope for any sensible strategies in Mr Pickles. Well, there are always Quislings and Vichy types.

As for the H2B, words are now failing to express my contempt for both his conduct, and his future (U-turning) plans.

What hope for a speedy ejection of the hoards at Basildon now?

Whitehall Tough Guys

No one can accuse Pickles of failing to put growth first.

Pickles and Osborne have taken on the time honoured role of being Whitehall hard men,filling the vacancies that Charles Clarke and Gordon Brown left. Absurd windbag bruisers who strut around acting tough among the soft crowd in the bubble.

It convinces no one outside the bubble. Especially as the "highly effective" Pickles can't even control his weight - if he cannot act on cause and effect in his own life then I'm not going to be convinced that he can do so on behalf of the country. Osborne comes across as a petulant and narcissistic place man. He's not the only one.

GeoffH

One sincerely hopes you are correct in the assertion of no 'back-down'.

There have been too many instances of staking out public policy. Good policy. Then too much pandering to pressure groups and LibDem wimpishness.

Baroness Williams yesterday began, yet again, on an attempt to re-write and derail the NHS reforms. How many times has this been watered down to suit the the LIbDems? Is it two, three or now four?

Now Clegg today is wittering on about Free Schools 'must all be in deprived areas' in the future. In what respect can the 'Free' if they must be directed in this way?

And so it goes on, yet where a LibDem Sec of State, Huhne, sets the country on a disastrous energy supply course of reliance on useless windmills there's never a hint of second thought, revision or a 'pause'. No rumblings from the HoL or threats from backbenches on the HoC to vote against.

Time for Cameron et al to 'put a bit of stick about', risk LibDem cries of outrage. Let 'em walk if they want.

Rhoda Klapp

Just how much of this is due to the failure to get planning permission for onshore wind farms? I don't mind a few houses (although I could do without vast rabbit-hutch estates) but I don't think much of 'localism' if it is a mechanism for pushing through things which are not popular locally anything like as much as they are with big government who are busy painting themselves into a corner over energy policy.

So I ask Mr Pickles, will you use these planning regs to push through wind farms? Will you allow an exception on the relaxed regs for wind farms?

DavidDP

Must admit to enjoying The Daily "We must cut red tape and make Britian pro-business" Telegraph complaining about cutting regulation and that this is too pro-business.

alexsandr

Why doesnt someone debunk the idea we have a housing shortage? OK there are people renting who would prefert to buy, but cant buy cos the banks wont do 100% mortgages. But there are houses up for sale all over the place. Until that slack is taken up then no need for new houses.

And as for industrial stuff. Went thru Kidderminster yesterday. The A449 towards Worcester is lined with new units all empty. Again there is plenty of slack to take up.

In2minds

"They intend to use the argument that’s coming over this to show that they are putting growth first".

Growth? I think you mean property bubble. Just what we need!

Publius

"defiant"

How you like to stir up trouble.

RKing

AT THEIR OWN PERIL!!!

Occasional Ostrich

alexsandr 12:01pm

"there are houses up for sale all over the place."

Maybe there are around your place, but not up here. Nor where my son lives in Newbury.

A plethora of 'For Sale' signs can indicate the general undesirability of a place.

Austin Barry

David Cameron is on a mission:

“My order in Whitehall this autumn is to think even more boldly about what we can do to put the turbo-boosters on the British economy,” the Prime Minister said.

“Nothing should be taboo. If that means taking on the lobby groups that are defending every last bit of the regulation that crushes businesses then we will do it.”

Most of the regulation that crushes businesses comes from the EU, but Dave won’t address that issue because it may compromise the turbo-boosters to a lucrative EU sinecure once he leaves office.

David Parker

This does look very much as if one of the ulterior motives of this proposed legislation is to force onshore windfarms onto an unwilling population. Nothing, in fact, could be less "sustainable" than wind powered generators, but Greg Clark, as well as Cameron, is a fully paid up member of the AGW lobby.

Andy Carpark

The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a hairy man. But IDS is a noisy man.

strapworld

Mr Forsyth. Defiant? Foolhardy I would say. IF they attempt to push this through without regard for the people they will prove to be as boneheaded as the last lot.

I wrote the other day that this issue is by the rich for the rich and I stand by that.

It is easy in their position to sound tough but when they lose their seats, as Osborne could quite easily do in Cheshire, they will have a long time to regret their stupidity.

Why not a referendum on this? Cameron gave the Lib Dems one on a subject everyone knew would be defeated. This is another!

Austin Barry

No one should underestimate our determination to win this battle".

I like Eric Pickles, but perhaps the first battle he should win, for his own health’s sake, is to lose a bit of timber. He has more chins than a Chinese telephone directory. He may have to call Cammell Laird to cancel his order for a new suit, but it would be worth it.

I’m not sure that I want planning decisions made by a man who probably despises the Green Belt because it resembles salad.

oldtimer

Rhoda Klapp has hit the nail on the head. This is all about pushing wind farms through. That is why Mr Greg Clark has been put in charge. He is a wind farm champion. Or is evangelist the word I need?

Fergus Pickering

Do you really think that Cameron is doing all this for a eurojob, Austin Barry. He doesn't need the money whereas Brown might say he did.

Anand

Alexandrs:
"OK there are people renting who would prefert to buy, but cant buy cos the banks wont do 100% mortgages. But there are houses up for sale all over the place. Until that slack is taken up then no need for new houses."

Ever considered that there are loads of houses for sale yet peopel are still renting because PRICES are too high? It has nothing to do with the banks anymore. The Banks KNOW prioces are too high and wont lend more than 75% without crippling high interest rates...and RIGHTLY SO!

This country's obsession with house prices has made us so uncompetitive and spending ever insane percntages of our take home income to keep a roof over out heads.

People feel outraged by the increasing costs of petrol, food and energy yet if house prices go up its "whoa look how rich and clever I am"

Building more houses at more affordable prices will stimulate the market and get people buying hopefully at reasonable price to earnings rations and LTV as opposed to pissing good money away in rents to greedy landlords!

BUILD BUILD BUILD I say!

Edward McLaughlin

You refer to a "growth strategy", and this has a positive ring to it. Is there in fact, any more to it than that?

Notable by its absence is any dissentig voice here, regarding the proposals on planning. What a surprise.

FvH

"building houses for growth" sounds like something out of Lenin's 5 year plan !!

I suppose innovation and exports are just not a realistic route any more?

I can't honestly believe that the government are "relaxed" about the levels of opposition over their plans

This will get very nasty as the wind turbines and the housing estate go up!!

NickW

Q. Is it possible to continue indefinitely to build on agricultural land?

A. Obviously not.

So how are the politicians going to stop it from happening, and why is it that politicians have become more interested in destroying everything that is England, rather than protecting it?

We don't want England carpeted in "affordable" rabbit hutches that are impossible to live in and which no one wants.

Pettros

I am glad this will not impact on Scotland. The English are their own worst enemies.

Bill Brinsmead

Dame Fiona Reynolds has no mandate from National Trust members to dabble in politics and lobbying.

She'd be better advised to stick to her well paid day job as Director General - salary £200k+ - than behave like the shrill campaigner she once was at the Campaign to Protect Rural England or the Labour supporting policy advisor she once was to Tony Blair in his No 10 Policy Unit.

Boyders

If this is all about growth, then it is a short term ultimately to be regretted measure. For growth cut taxes and make Britain an attractive place to start a business. Bring back taper relief, make it attractive to build on brown-field sites. Don't pander to the fact that we have too many people living here and there is a shortage of housing. The fact is, we do have too many people living here and too many people are doing nothing. Sort that out please.

Boyders

PS. All that will happen is that building firms will buy up loads of land with planning consent (they already own loads of land with planning consent) and wait until it is worth building.

AndyinBrum

It might be windfarms (I've still not seen what the problem with them is, I think they look beautiful, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder etc)

But I wonder if this is more to do with HS2 & Nuclear

Austin Barry

Fergus Pickering @1.46 pm

“Do you really think that Cameron is doing all this for a eurojob, Austin Barry. He doesn't need the money whereas Brown might say he did.”

It’s what Cameron is not doing that suggests he is looking for a eurojob – no referendum on membership etc. – and even Cameron would probably welcome a nice little earner. There’s never enough money for Cameron, for anyone…

Baron

they can either turn or get buried, it's up to them.

Baron

and another thing:

How are these planning reforms ‘crucial the coalition’s growth strategy’, ha? The housing market ties up capital that could, should be diverted towards those sectors that create wealth, make things and stuff. Baron suspects Rhoda’s gut feeling gets it, the idea behind is to get wind farms going whether the locals like it or not, few large landowners will rake it in, the cost of energy will escalate, the reliability of supply will suffer.

The policy, or rather the resultant high cost of energy will lose the Tories the next count. Silly.

have alook here:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100103077/sir-reginald-sheffield-bt-an-apology/

Magnolia

Who benefits?
The Treasury does very well out of home ownership with all that stamp duty and VAT for luxury services such as roof repairs.
Could it be that they want to help plug the debt hole with the kind of growth that comes from increased taxes?
Dearie me, all that spending's so three years ago when we were all consuming and running up debt like chimneys!
Those sofa ads just don't look glamerous any more.
Soon be time to ditch that other government cash cow (the car) as well.
At least we can eat the green fields.

Peter From Maidstone

The housing problem is an immigration problem. There are lots of houses, but millions of them are being used by immigrants. Is the answer to build more houses or have less immigrants and migrants living in England?

In2minds

"Tellingly, Number 10 wanted him (Pickles) out doing media during the worst of the riots".

That is so funny, talk about living in a bubble. What was to happen, all those kids rushing back to the shops they had just looted and hanging the sports shirts back on the rails?

I S

Most journalists are utterly clueless about economics. Can Forsyth explain how this is crucial to growth instead of idiotically parroting Government press releases?