Is it time to scrap the planning system?

If Keir Starmer does succeed in his aim of stimulating a house-building boom, it may be that landowners will have little to celebrate. The government has launched a consultation into proposals to extend the powers of compulsory purchase to help councils assemble land for new housing developments.

No public body can simply seize land; that would be in breach of the Human Rights Act. But the price that landowners should be paid when their land is required for public projects is a matter of much argument. Should councils or development commissions simply pay the current value – what the seller would achieve if he tried to sell it on the open market in its current condition, without any planning permission in place to develop it – or should they pay a higher sum that includes ‘hope value’ – i.e., what the land would be worth if it were already zoned for new homes?

The difference can be astronomical.