Planning reforms are not as unpopular with Tory voters as you might think

The proposals will alienate some, of course, but the Nimby instinct can be overcome, writes Ed Dorrell

‘Opposition to housebuilding softens markedly if people can be convinced that it won’t be hundreds of badly built red boxes scarring the landscape’ (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Tory WhatsApp groups are ablaze in the aftermath of the Chesham and Amersham by-election shock, with MPs demanding the death of the government’s planning reforms – one of the major issues up for debate at this election, along with the construction of the HS2 railway. “The concerns about planning and HS2 were loud and clear,” said Amanda Milling, co-chair of the Conservative Party. “I am in no doubt that Thursday’s result is a warning shot and we are listening.”

The truth is that there are more than a few senior and not-so-senior Conservatives who will be OK with sacrificing one constituency if it means the government’s extensive proposals to reform our archaic planning system are killed off as a result.

And extensive they are. The slate of changes unveiled by ministers last summer were ambitious in the extreme. Driven by a desire to do something about the atrophied state of housebuilding, the most radical proposal would see the country divided into zones, with some areas essentially designated as having pre-ordained permission. At this stage, local democratic control would switch to a debate about the “what” (aesthetics and architecture) and not “if” a development should happen or not.