If housing is a political football, how do we score goals?

Housing delivery and planning applications are often referred to as political footballs that are kicked between the politicians and candidates to fire up the crowds in the electoral stands. Over the years, I’ve worked on many projects where we have advised clients to avoid the election campaign period, to structure the engagement timeline to minimise the risk of an application being weaponised by one side or the other, and to warn disbelieving developers about those councillors who write their campaign leaflets off the back of the weekly planning applications list.  

However, over that same period, ministers have come and gone, policy ideas have been adopted, rejected or ignored and the beautiful game of planning has been gridlocked in a midfield passing frenzy, where no goals are scored and the crowd feel forever trapped in a Del Amitri time warp. If only planning was a game of two halves instead of the infinite fractions, variables and denominators that frame this sector.  

It is for these reasons that yesterday, along with a team of excellent and experienced fellow founder directors, we launched a new housing and planning fringe group within the Conservative Party to campaign positively for housing, planning and the construction sector. A sector that not only makes a huge contribution to the success of the UK economy but literally builds the places where we live, learn, heal, work, play and even watch football matches. The Conservative Housing and Development Network seeks to bring together Conservative politicians at every level with industry leaders from across the built environment – to network, collaborate, explore ideas, find solutions, and maybe provide some assists for goals hitting the back of the delivery net. Yes, it is a party-political group but, if we are to make progress, then we need to entrench similar debate and discussions within each political party so that future manifestos can be innovative and exciting with the promise of success.    

There are problems with the current housing debate that we need to recognise and address – a team will not win simply because their manager tells them to go out and score a bucketful of goals, and likewise targets alone do not result in new homes being built, as borne out by the findings of SEC Newgate’s very own Planning Barometer earlier this year.  

We need to find ways of removing, or at least reducing, the adversarial nature of our planning debate and decisions. If you think people are polarised around Brexit or immigration, then try a controversial housing project and you’ll see the parish “Firm” turning up on match day tooled up ready for a ruck. Part of that responsibility is to improve the debate and move away from a simple binary debate about whether housing is good or bad. We need housing, but we need the right type and quality of housing in the right location to meet demand – remembering all the while that we are not building houses just to hit a government target, we are building homes for individuals and families to enjoy in safety, security and warmth.  

A significant issue is the number of statutory consultees and government agencies that are involved in the planning process and more often than not this is why that ball ends up stuck in midfield. An army of assistant referees are on hand to intervene, delay or find a reason why play needs to stop, and when this clock stops there is no hesitation in adding infinite amounts of injury time onto the game. By the time the decision gets to the referee, their ears are full of advice and recommendations – whether there is insufficient water in the pitch, rare insects on the touchline, too much parking outside the ground, too many seats per square metre in the stands, or not enough affordable pies on the food concessions – it is rare that there is not a problem, however tenuous the link seems to be to the development itself. As in any walk of life, many of these issues could be resolved earlier if the system encouraged the referee to talk to the players before the match even kicks off.  

But at the heart of this discussion, it is the fans on the terraces who suffer. They wait and wait for a goal that never comes, and their ticket price goes through the roof to pay for the army of match officials who are there to stop play and ensure the ball stays away from the net. 

Solving our housing and planning woes is not simple and there is no single answer or policy that will keep everyone happy, but if we can explore how to tackle some of the blockages, we might just see some more goals on the sheet at the end of 90 minutes (or 90 weeks, in the case of some planning applications!). 

If anyone would like more information on CHDN please get in touch or visit our website at The Conservative Housing and Development Network – The Conservative Housing and Development Network