This week Boris Johnson attracted ridicule for launching a ‘New Deal’ that contained precious little that was actually new.
But among the bluff and bluster, one pledge stood out. The prime minister promised to undertake “the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War”. This, we were told, will help us “build back better, build back greener, build back faster”.
For most people, the planning system is an obscure black box. Unless you happen to be a councillor, a housing nerd, a property investor or an avid NIMBY, the chances are that you have never had to engage with it. But the way that land is allocated, used and managed has an enormous impact on how the economy works, and in whose interests.
