In the last few months, there’s been a distinct change in the attitude of the Tories at the heart of government. They are now far more cognisant of just how difficult it is to drive change through the government machine. It is no longer just Steve Hilton and Michael Gove complaining about this, but Osborne and Cameron too.
The Chancellor’s particular frustration at the moment is over the pace of planning reform. Osborne and his brains trust believe that simplifying the planning rules is one of the things that they could do to both give the economy a short term stimulus, by encouraging more construction, and improve its long term prospects.
But the coalition is making slower progress on the matter than Osborne would like. When the proposed new rules were sent out to consultation last year, various green and countryside groups objected.
I understand that Osborne has decided that the government will pretty much override these objections. They’ll be what one senior source calls ‘some green camouflage’, but that will be about it.
Osborne wants to refer to the new rules in the Budget, have them published in full soon afterwards and then come into force next month. But, as I say in the Mail on Sunday, bureaucrats and lawyers at the Department for Communities and Local Government are insisting that there has to be a transition period. They are warning that there’ll be a ‘Wild West’ style situation if the new rules apply from April.
These wranglings are yet another reminder that, in government, the decision is often, by comparison, the easy bit. The Budget will have lots of announcements in it. But one of the big tests of it will be whether these changes are actually implemented as intended.
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