Building Consent

Except perhaps in the deepest inner cities, no one who has ever been so much as a realistic parliamentary candidate has not participated in a NIMBY campaign, while between them, NIMBY and WASPI account for a third or more, and often a very great deal more, of the constituency work that an MP does in a typical week. Mostly with small minorities and frequently with tiny ones, Labour has recently acquired constituency responsibility for great swathes of rural England. Rachel Reeves has ruled out any new council housing, thereby giving the NIMBYs all the ammunition that they could possibly need.

But wherever there is a right-wing Labour machine, then there is, shall we say, a cosy relationship with property developers, as also with, for example, various types of contractor, and a certain sort of landlord. Watching the national and municipal sides of the Labour Right fight this out would be entertaining if the stakes were not so high. The blockers are the builders. Developers are hoarding land so as to maximise prices by restricting supply, thereby also thwarting competitors. Land banking is their business model.

The Green Belt was a Labour idea. Look at it, and of course it was. But it is now a giant subsidy to horseyculture and golf. The State decrees and pays that more of Surrey be occupied by golf courses than by housing. This is not about the green and pleasant land. That is what Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are for. The Green Belt is to stop conurbations from running into each other. It is not all pretty.

Still, having made significant gains in the countryside, Labour is running quite a risk. NIMBYism is fundamental to the Green Party in principle, and both to it and to the Liberal Democrats in practice. Like Labour, the Conservatives are more than capable of it, as no doubt Reform UK would be. Yet only 0.1 per cent of the United Kingdom is continuous urban fabric, and only one per cent, including two per cent of England, is built on at all. Buildings cover less land than is revealed when the tide goes out, and we are certainly not growing food on all of the rest. The Government's proposals are insufficiently ambitious.