Don’t get me wrong, I am a long standing Labour party supporter but when I read articles in Planning magazine outlining Labour’s proposals for the planning system, should they be elected, I can help but get frustrated that it has no direction, rehashes old ideals and fails to respond to the real challenges.

Published in Planning magazine today, Ed Miliband says ‘Labour would hand city and county regions that show they can deliver real economic leadership radical new powers and access to resources from Whitehall ‘the like of which we have not seen in living memory’ …..

Someone needs to be the first to stand up and say ‘Localism’ for planning does not work. Neighbourhood planning has failed to gather any great momentum, local plans are struggling through the examination process since the abolition of regional spatial strategies and localism is being mistakenly used by local communities to resist any development.

Subsidiarity is a good thing in principle but leaving it solely to the locality will result in planning delays, unpredictability and further resistance to house building which this country needs.

A small dose of elected and accountable regional/strategic governance is what is needed to get the country building again.

Labour is backing the wrong horse. We dont need furthe devolution of planning powers.

Sorry for my rant!! … Needed to take out my frustration! 