PILLO

¡PILLO! PILLO!

Updates are lovely

…the Chief Planner promises a “further update on our approach to changes in the planning system in the Spring”. Well here’s hoping! Updates are lovely, of course. Who wouldn’t want an update? I’ll be front of the queue for a nice new update. But you know what would be even better? A proper response to the 2020 White Paper consultation with a programme for reform. Because this chronic uncertainty over what - if any - reforms are actually coming forward is now a big part of the reason our system is in such paralysis… – Zack Simons, Landmark Chambers #planoraks

Wheel failure

I think it would help if we went back to evidencebased regulation rather than the Precautionary Principle (under which the invention of the wheel would likely have failed a safety analysis). – Oliver Harwood, Chairman of CULS Rural Forum

Noah’s Arc would never have been built

The Government’s white paper ‘Review of Policy for Development in Areas at Flood Risk’ July 2021, does little to provide any confidence that the key policy makers have any understanding of the issues involved, nor an understanding that their policy actively prevents adaptation and innovation. The solution is simple: The Policy needs to recognise design and the adaptability of that design to account for climate change from the outset of the plann making process. Clear guidance on how to apply an inclusive Sequential Test is required. It is a simple solution to a difficult problem that can be so easily fixed. There is an opportunity for the new housing minister, Stuart Andrew, to demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and look for solutions which to date the Government have failed to do. At the moment, for Noah to build his Arc, he had better look to foreign shores. – Justin Meredith, MD of Floodline Consulting

London-by-Sea Planners for Putin

Last month I received a leaflet from my local council encouraging me to club together with neighbours to install solar panels. I signed up. Several bewildering phone calls later, it seems there have been no changes to planning rules in the decade since we moved in. If you live in a conservation area or listed building, and if the sunny part of your roof faces the street, as ours does, the planners are still siding with Putin. – Camilla Cavendish in the FT

Future reforms

It is quite depressing to see the enthusiasm and resolve that inspired the - admittedly controversial - Planning for the Future reforms apparently being sacrificed for political expediency. If an 80-seat majority cannot deliver meaningful reform, then I suspect it will be a very long time coming. What a difference 18 months, and a lost by-election, makes. – Nicola Gooch, a planning partner at Irwin Mitchell

Brilliant being old

Being old I get free bus and Tube fares. People immediately stand up and give me their seat. Sometimes they call me ‘Sir’, Listen to all my stories without interrupting. Oh, it's brilliant being old. And even better being carless. – Hunter Davies in the Sunday Times

Arc failure symptomatic

The Arc is a core expression of strategic planning in England and a huge test case for the planning system as a whole. At the moment we don't appear to have the apparatus to make it work. – David Valler, professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University who is publishing a forthcoming paper examining the failure of politicians to sell the Arc to the public, said the project was emblematic of the wider constraints on planning in England.

The meaning of lifestyle

When we refer to lifestyle this includes education, the proximity to accessible primary airports and the number of luxury establishments like five-star hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants and high-end shopping. – Flora Harley, deputy editor of the Knight Frank Wealth Report n as seen in Poperty Week