Updates from Westminster

They say a week is a long time in politics, so how about a month…?

Robert Jenrick MP the Minister in charge of country’s housing has spent much of the last few weeks ‘regrouping and reassessing’ -some might unkindly say backtracking- on the much lauded ‘radical proposals’ within the Queen’s Speech to ‘Build, build build, building back faster , greener and fairer’ according to PM, Boris Johnson.

The combined results of two by-elections, which the Conservatives expected to win (Chesham and Amersham in the SE lost to the LibDems & Batley and Spen in Yorkshire, retained by Labour) as well as its own MPs lining up to use a Commons Debate to press for watering down planning reforms, has sent Mr Jenrick out on a conference and media charm offensive to calm nerves and row back on several issues which have also alarmed no less than three former leaders (Ian Duncan Smith, William Hague and Teresa May.)

Batley and Spen had many underlying factors at play, not least glory hunting personalities (there were 16 candidates) gender, sexuality, race, and religious to name but a few. However, the issue of planning - specifically easing restrictions - figured strongly in several of the districts where the Conservatives expected to poll well and didn’t.

The same issue was front and centre in Chesham and Amersham, alongside the thorny issue of HS2, which figured as a ‘planning disaster’ in much of the opposing election literature. These results have sent the Conservative party managers into a funk, because they now fear not only that they can’t rely on the so called ‘Red Wall’ seats in the North staying with them but that they will be increasingly vulnerable in the South’s ‘Blue Wall’ seats where the LibDems will be pressing them.

The most useful insight into the Government’s current thinking came in the Minister’s recent speech to the Local Government Association (LGA) where he confirmed, crucially that the new infrastructure levy which will replace Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) will be now be locally, not nationally based (for full speech -https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/local-government-association-annual-conference-2021-secretary-of-states-speech)

Labour’s Shadow Communities’ Secretary , Steve Reed MP, has helpfully challenged the Government to back Labour's new ‘Use it or Lose It’ Planning Bill to get more homes with planning permission built out and called for councils to back the party’s opposition to the proposed limitations on public say over planning applications.

Mr Jenrick has just announced (6th July) the Government’s long awaited response to its controversial planning white paper would not be available for at least two more months (having been promised in the Spring) so plenty more time to get lobbying. Party managers are praying there’ll be no more by elections before then…

New figures released from the House of Commons Library show that house prices, as measured by the UK House Price Index, increased by 8.9% between April 2020 and April 2021. There was differential growth across the country  - house prices grew by 16.9% in the North East, 15.6% in Wales and 12.0% in Yorkshire & The Humber. Growth was slowest in London at 3.3% and the South East at 5.0%. On the back of this and recent ONS statistics, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, Lucy Powell MP has said the stamp duty holiday is an example of the government’s “failed approach” to home ownership and housing affordability and has also accused the Government of having the wrong priorities on housing and “pushing the dream of homeownership further out of reach for many.” She estimates that  first time buyers are paying, on average, an extra £18,537 for their first home compared to this time last year. Outside London, the difference is even higher.

And finally

News that John Lewis is to build 10,000 rental homes over the next decade as it looks to diversify its business amid a precarious time for the high street has divided opinion in the Houses of Parliament but not for the reasons you might expect. It’s been reported that John Lewis homes will offer residents the option of being fully furnished by the firm, and will come with a concierge and attached Waitrose store near the entrance. Carrie Johnson, the PM’s new wife, is reported to have a horror of John Lewis interior design, indeed, that’s what got him into so much trouble with the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner earlier this year and cost him a cool £60,000 to replace. The corridors of power, not to mention the tearoom and bars, are ringing not with the sound of post covid reopened cash registers but much unparliamentary sniggering. Will the exterior design be to her tastes? Maybe one for next week’s PMQs?