Labour fails to split the Tories on planning

Labour’s attempt to bring Tory divisions over planning reforms into the House of Commons flopped this evening, with no Conservatives at all supporting the party’s opposition vay vote. They all abstained.

It was a reasonably anodyne motion, calling on the government ‘to protect the right of communities to object to individual planning applications’. But there weren’t even that many Conservative MPs who turned up to the debate to be critical of the reforms as they are proposed at present. A smattering of them lambasted Labour for being opportunistic, or for overseeing inappropriate development at local government level. A couple — namely Bob Seeley and Andrew Griffith — took the opportunity to urge ministers to think again. But in the main, it was a non-event.

But Labour’s failure to capitalise on the row following the Chesham and Amersham by-election upset doesn’t mean the planning problem is going away.