Labour’s war on beautiful housing

Another day, another drama – and this time Sir Keir’s government is in the spotlight. In the National Planning Policy Framework published today by the Ministry of Housing, the author’s handiwork is clear for all to see. The 84-page file details more than just the government’s approach to housebuilding – it specifies exactly what deletions have been made from earlier editions. The document has been published with new tracked updates dotted throughout – and Mr S has been rather interested in the war that Starmer’s government appears to be waging on, um, ‘beautiful’ homes…

Here are a few other examples of the changes that have been made…

The contents page once indicated there was an entire section on ‘achieving well designed and beautiful places’ – but alas, it seems that under a Labour government, aesthetics aren’t important.

In a section on ‘making effective use of land’, Mr S noted that where once it was considered important to state that the external appearance of housing ‘harmonises with the original building’, the new version removed this:

Strategic policies should no longer ensure ‘outcomes support beauty and placemaking’ – and the new version also states that the aim of planning policies should be to ‘achieve healthy inclusive and safe places’, after removing yet another reference to ‘beautiful buildings’…

Something similar occurred where the government paper discussed ‘achieving appropriate densities’ of housing…

While later in this section, a whole paragraph on how housing would be ‘inappropriate’ if the ‘resulting built form’ is ‘wholly out of character with the existing area’ has been cut.