As the dust settles from the Local Elections a week ago, there are a lot fewer Tory Councillors and a lot more ABC (Anything But Conservative) Councillors (Lab 527, LD 415, Grn 240) and anyone who tries to translate those results into a projection of a likely General Election result with weird and wonderful rainbow coalitions is sorely misguided. The reality is that after 13 years in office the Tory Government is looking a bit tired, they have largely run out of ideas and their reputation after Trussonomics is in tatters – despite Rishi being a safer pair of hands, the damage is done.
Keir Starmer is on his way to Number 10… oppositions rarely win elections – Governments lose elections. And that is what we are seeing unfold in front of us. The result last week is simply a symptom of the Government losing the next General Election.
So, let’s put the past behind us, look at the future, and examine ‘Starmerism’. In a recent interview with The Economist, Keir Starmer was questioned about house building.
Starmer was asked how radical he would be to release land, to impose top-down targets, to take on what’s sometimes called NIMBYism, in terms of people’s objections to more housing.
Starmer said he would “take this on” and explained that “It’s a central weakness of the prime minister, that he’s backed down now in the face of opposition on targets. For all the fine words, everybody knows what the consequence of that will be, which is less house building. So, we have to have the courage to take that on, and to ensure that we partner with builders across the country to get affordable housing, wherever we can, across the country. It will require tough decisions. If we’re going to reform planning, if we’re going to have to look again at regulations, and then we need to get on with that to do the house building that we need.”
The follow-up question was on how far he would go and whether this would involve the Green Belt.
Starmer said: “I’m absolutely clear in my mind, the status quo is not good enough. We have to change this. That will require us to be bold when it comes to things like planning. That’s the kind of partnership arrangement; you know, if you’re going to be in a partnership, you can’t have both partners doing what the other partner could perfectly well do. You’ve got to know that you’re doing different things. And so, I would require builders to work with us to achieve the targets we need to achieve….they will get in return a government that rolls up its sleeves and removes the impediments and creates the conditions…”
These are certainly the right noises, and we are very much looking forward to the Labour Party Conference in October where they will reveal more detailed policies… as the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding!
Until next week,
Henry
