Planning bill a step, not a leap, in the right direction
11 March 2025
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Labour Market
Lifestyle Economics
Lifestyle Economics
17 March 2025
Commenting on the Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill, Dr Kristian Niemietz, Editorial Director and Head of Political Economy at the free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:
“Britain’s inability to build thing has long been the biggest drag on economic dynamism and prosperity, making us all poorer for no good reason. The system has become a playground for semi-professional obstructionists, for whom blocking things has become a way of life.
“The planning reforms announced today contain several steps in the right direction, because they will close off some of the entry portals for lifestyle NIMBYism. But the emphasis is very much on “streamlining” the existing system, as opposed to overhauling it. If all goes according to plan, the planning bill will deliver a speedier and tidier version of the system we have. But what will stop that system from cluttering up again over time? What will keep the momentum going when the government runs out of steam, or is replaced by a less development-friendly one?
“The government should have been bolder. They should have aimed for something more akin to the successful prewar planning system, which delivered the great building boom of the 1930s.”
“Britain’s inability to build thing has long been the biggest drag on economic dynamism and prosperity, making us all poorer for no good reason. The system has become a playground for semi-professional obstructionists, for whom blocking things has become a way of life.
“The planning reforms announced today contain several steps in the right direction, because they will close off some of the entry portals for lifestyle NIMBYism. But the emphasis is very much on “streamlining” the existing system, as opposed to overhauling it. If all goes according to plan, the planning bill will deliver a speedier and tidier version of the system we have. But what will stop that system from cluttering up again over time? What will keep the momentum going when the government runs out of steam, or is replaced by a less development-friendly one?
“The government should have been bolder. They should have aimed for something more akin to the successful prewar planning system, which delivered the great building boom of the 1930s.”
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