The Government is doing little to solve housing shortages - Yorkshire Post Letters

Remember Bill Clinton’s unforgettable election slogan in the 1990s - “it’s the economy, stupid”. The equivalent now seems to be ‘it’s the planning system, stupid’.

Why have we built nowhere near sufficient houses - it’s the planning system. Why does it take so long to get approvals - it’s the planning system. Why are the volume house builders land banking - it’s the planning system. Why do developers constantly plead poverty and submit ‘unviable’ schemes - why, of course it’s the planning system.

Nothing to do with broken political promises or the abandoning of housing targets or the 20 per cent or so inbuilt profit margins for developers or the 13 year decimation of Local Government staffing, inevitably including the planning department or indeed some of the really poor quality housing schemes being submitted and the cynical artificially low build out rates on sites, only intended to maximise the selling price.

Announcements by Messrs Sunak and Gove do very little to address the real problems I have listed above.

All the Plans panels I have been part of, include good local councillors, who are eager to receive innovative, high quality climate conscious and environmentally friendly schemes that they can approve.

They are not the problem and local people will not allow the Government to scapegoat them.

We know that politics is about making choices. The answer lies in proper longer term thinking, prioritising housing as a national economic priority, investing substantially in associated infrastructure and being serious about eliminating overcrowding, rough sleeping and many intolerably poor housing conditions.