Sir Keir Starmer has broken cover on planning. In perhaps his most daring policy announcement so far, he has declared his intention to overhaul the planning system to free up more housing. When pressed on the morning media round he was clear – he would take the fight to NIMBYs and wouldn’t yield to backbenchers about developments in their patch. Labour, he said, would be on the side of the ‘builders not the blockers’.
The discussion around planning has gradually broken away from interest groups and into the mainstream – and the Labour leader wants to make it a focus of the next election
It is a bold move, but one which shows the shifting sands of the politics of housing. Until recently, rising house prices were something governments boasted about, a sign of prosperity for middle England. Anything that threatened that, including development in local fields, was something to be campaigned against and blocked.
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