Tories are choosing property tycoons over their own voters with planning shake-up: Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Michael Meadowcroft, Former Liberal MP for Leeds West, Bramley, Leeds.
Robert Jenrick,the current Housing and Communities Secretary, has been embroiled in political controversy over a planning application and links to a Tory donor.Robert Jenrick,the current Housing and Communities Secretary, has been embroiled in political controversy over a planning application and links to a Tory donor.
Robert Jenrick,the current Housing and Communities Secretary, has been embroiled in political controversy over a planning application and links to a Tory donor.

From: Michael Meadowcroft, Former Liberal MP for Leeds West, Bramley, Leeds.

THE Government’s proposals to give developers a free hand in swathes of land is the clearest proof yet that this Conservative administration is more interested in cash than votes (The Yorkshire Post, August 6).

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The people it will antagonise most are those in the posher areas horrified at individual planning proposals that will certainly impinge on the pleasant environment they have paid heavily to secure, and not those in urban areas with the plentiful availability of brownfield sites.

The Government's planning reforms are coming under scrutiny.The Government's planning reforms are coming under scrutiny.
The Government's planning reforms are coming under scrutiny.

Just look at the organised and vocal opposition to the HS2 rail proposal or the outcry at the proposal to extend the Leeds Bradford airport. These electors are in areas historically predisposed to vote Conservative who are going to be hugely alienated.

On the other hand, developers have contributed massively to Conservative party funds over many years and are now likely to be rewarded for their investment. Indeed, it hardly behoves Robert Jenrick to be the minister promoting the new planning proposals having so recently been implicated in the furore over Richard Desmond’s planning proposal.

The Government talks glibly about the current planning process taking years. Yet the majority of applications go through rapidly and it is only those that are rightly controversial and potentially detrimental that provoke objections and take more time.

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If the Government’s crocodile tears over the price and availability of building land are genuine, there is a simple solution that will immediately reduce the costs and release land: tax land values rather than buildings. This will make land less valuable and will make it uneconomic for developers to hoard land.

From: Steve Wilson, Lenton Villas, Bradford.

THE Government’s overhaul of the planning system will struggle to reassure communities. For decades, the big developers have been able to steamroller local objections and impotent council planning departments to continue the destruction of green fields.

At the same time brownfield sites, admittedly less profitable, are in abundance. However, land banks are well stocked, sufficient for the focus to remain on the higher margin sites for several years. Business has to make a return for shareholders but, where housing is concerned, the bottom line cannot be the sole focus for a decent society.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

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