Planning reform is an easy way of helping the economy

‘Desperate Treasury to water down planning laws,’ blasts the Telegraph today, making it quite clear that it’ll oppose any effort by the government to return to planning reform. Those Tories who were uncomfortable with the original proposals are also making clear that they haven’t changed their position.

The new national planning policy framework was announced this spring. Those who helped craft this compromise are privately stressing that it is simply too early to tell whether further changes are needed.

But I still think there is a good chance that the Treasury will push for more planning reform this autumn. First, it is something that it genuinely believes would help the economy, and the particularly hard hit construction sector, in both the short and the long term. It is also something that is do-able. Radical supply-side reform would be very difficult to get past the Liberal Democrats.