NW 2013: Planning policy in ten words or less
After Britain loses its Triple AAA credit rating George Osborne will be replaced at the Treasury by William Hague. Greece will end in messy default. To address the unfolding crisis, the Government will announce a review of red tape.
This will include a first review of the National Planning Policy Framework.
Eric Pickles will say his intention is to cut 60 pages of needless bureaucracy to seven words:
"Please build, wherever, and whenever you can."
The long lingering death of regional planning will finally come to an end.
The Big Society will be relaunched.
Nick Clegg will say the Cabinet are still having interesting discussions about Garden Cities, and a competition will be launched. To speed this up – entries will only need to be submitted on the back of a postcard.
The first naming and shaming of underperforming planning authorities will begin.
Dennis Skinner will be banned from the House of Commons for calling Nick Boles "pig ugly".
And I have a strange feeling there may be a Royal baby. Or is that sticking my neck out too far?
- Michael Wellock, managing director, Kirkwells, planning conultants, Burnley
In that scenario there wouldn’t be any need for planning consultants so be careful what you wish for. However, I imagine democracy and the common good won’t be bulldozed quite so efficiently.
By Christopher Griffiths