Michael Gove’s big challenge

Michael Gove is now in charge of one of the government’s biggest short-term problems: what to do about its proposed planning reform, which are facing huge opposition from Tory backbenchers, as well as levelling up, the government’s long-term aim.

I write in the Times today that those MPs who have discussed planning with Gove in recent weeks have been struck by his emphasis on the fact that only 15 per cent of the house-price inflation of the last two decades comes from a lack of supply. This suggests Gove thinks that tweaking rules on credit and buy-to-let is as important, if not more so, than using more land for development. Remember that there were more second homes bought in the decade after the financial crisis than there were new homes built.

Then, there is the whole question of levelling up.