London Conservative MPs Say New Standard Method Will Destroy London Suburbia

Times

Boris Johnson has been warned by Tory MPs that an algorithm at the heart of his planning reforms risks “destroying suburbia” and “creating the slums of the future”.

The prime minister held a video conference call on Wednesday with 17 Tory MPs from the greater London area about the government’s white paper on planning. He was joined by Mark Spencer, the chief whip, and Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary.

The MPs, who included four serving ministers, were “unanimous” in raising concerns about the reforms, which will treble the number of homes built in London to 93,532 a year. They warned that the reforms would “do real harm to the suburbs” and “real harm to the Conservative vote”.

Its a calculation of need, not necessarily in land constrained areas where it should go. Until ministers recognize the need to redistribute what overspill above what the London Plan EIP panel says London can build we will always have this.

Government Panic Means Reformed Planning System Could Deliver Far Fewer Houses

Daily Mail

A source said an area’s required number of homes ‘will only be the starting point’ in the process. ‘Local authorities will still need to consider the constraints they face locally to assess how many homes can be delivered,’ 

Err wasnt the point of The Planning White Paper to strengthen the standard method, remove the cap and redistribute housing from constrained areas; and this would replace the duty to cooperate which under current national policy requires provision for ‘a any needs that cannot be met within neighbouring areas’

So with this change, which isn’t in the White Paper, local authorities would simply push numbers down to far lower than than the formula or the current system. What a mess.

Of course it may simply be the MHCLG press office not really understanding what they are doing, in the absence of a new chief planner, trying to spin themselves out of a political hole, or ministers doing the same. Either way lets ask a simple question, is the purpose of the reforms to force the shires to build more or let them build less? Its a simple question.