I am not a fan of this government - no really! But it crossed my mind that their latest wheeze - basically giving big developers carte blanche to build all over anything and everything is another nail in the coffin of local government. First it was their status as a local education authority, now local planning looks to be going the same way. I wonder if Jenrick, or should that be Cummings? - has checked to see just how many developers have planning permission going back years but are not fully developing their projects - so they can sit on the land (land banking) until the value rises? Estimates are that nine out of ten applications are granted. It is known that many big donors to the Tory party are from a building/development background, as Mr. Jenrick could probably tell us.
Local authorities have taken a pasting one way and another - and a lot of them could do with getting their act together and try working WITH local organisations and listening to people, anyone on receive at Hounslow council? But at least they are local - not some faceless bureaucrats sitting in Whitehall who haven't a clue, and we can at least contact local councillors directly.
This power grab is frightening and where does it leave our claim to be a democracy? |