Housing secretary says wildlife should be protected but not at the expense of building the homes the country needs

The government plans to unveil sweeping changes this week to the national planning policy framework, the document which sets out national priorities for building, after a consultation.

I’m really looking forward to the yimby charter, I’ve got to say. We’re going to build so much stuff, it’s going to be amazing.

‘Labour seem to be saying that Angela is best and local people can be ignored.’

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  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
    63·
    3 days ago

    The people that love to talk about the importance of democracy love it when starmtroopers overrule local democracy.

    Near me the planning inspectorate recently overruled a refusal for hundreds of little boxes on a zone 3a floodplain. Why are we not prioritising building on high areas given sea level rises are pretty inevitable?

    • frankPodmore@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
      21·
      3 days ago

      We end up building on floodplains because NIMBYs block building everywhere else. These reforms will help us get more homes built where they’re needed. And they don’t overrule local democracy, they’ll take away the outsized influence of the blockers. Democracy requires a level playing field.

      • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
        21·
        3 days ago

        And they don’t overrule local democracy

        They overrule the democratically elected local councillors on the planning committee on local decisions, it does exactly that.

        • frankPodmore@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          We can all keep throwing around the word ‘democracy’ while the housing crisis gets worse, or the government can exercise its democratic (see?) mandate to change planning regulations in order to fix the housing crisis. For me, this change prevents councillors going rogue against the democratically (there it is again!) agreed local plans - there’s no ‘overruling’ by the government because it’s not a centrally made decision to overrule them, they simply won’t be able to poleaxe their own plans.

          So, it’s democratic twice over: the government exercises its mandate to allow councils to exercise their mandate to build.

    • theonlytruescotsmanEnglish
      26·
      3 days ago

      Well there’s the other solution, the final solution to this problem which you are advocating for by default. But most people agree that that’s not the direction to go so maybe we need more housing now and accept the loss of some scenery.

      • FelixCress@lemmy.world
        71·
        3 days ago

        the other solution, the final solution to this problem which you are advocating for by default

        Say what now?

        • theonlytruescotsmanEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          If you don’t build houses and people can’t afford to live in the few houses that exist, then you’re condemning them to death, so just build the houses or admit you’re fine with killing the undesirables instead of hiding behind pointless green washed versions of NIMBYism.

          • frankPodmore@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            See, this reads very reasonably, but I think people were a bit put off by your original reference to a ‘final solution’, which has some… overtones.