The development world in 2025…
I hope you all have a successful year and we are ready to help you to get Local Plan allocations and planning permissions! Our team of experts brings a unique insight to facilitate meaningful conversations and public consultation that actively finds the YIMBYs to support you!
Duncan Enright on Labour: Planning & Infrastructure Bill bringing significant changes to the planning system to facilitate the 1.5 million homes during the current Parliament. NPPF updates with further guidance, and more detail on transitional arrangements for plan-making. New Local Plan timetables will be required of councils within 12 weeks of the NPPF update. Otherwise, ministers will be down on councils like a ton of bricks (and the bricks are needed for the housebuilders, so that won't go down well!). My other prediction is that many councillors will be engaged in the gritty detail of local government reorganisation and establishment of mayoral strategic authorities and 21 Counties are involved.
James Mills on the Conservatives: In 2025, the Conservatives will pivot to local and regional government as a breeding ground for ambitious rising stars eager to redefine the party’s future. After a bruising general election defeat, these leaders will focus on rebuilding grassroots support and repairing the Party’s reputation. Meanwhile, we will grapple with an ideological tug-of-war, navigating the contrasting challenges of Reform UK’s right-wing surge and the Liberal Democrats’ centrist appeal. This year will be a battle for reinvention, as dynamic new voices emerge, setting the stage for a renewed Conservative identity capable of reclaiming relevance on the national stage.
Morgan Rise on the LibDems: 2025 presents many opportunities and our Party is buoyed by good election results. We will be looking to new areas for electoral gains – Surrey, Devon, Wiltshire – the big traditional Tory counties. The changes to the NPPF and Devolution white paper poses interesting challenges for the Lib Dems. Now running authorities they were the long-standing opposition parties in, and now responsible for housing delivery. Marrying our localism and desire for affordable housing delivery will be a tight line to walk, and it will be interesting to see how locals handle planning and local plans as political issues within their campaigns.
Phélim Mac Cafferty on the Greens: In 2025 we will be hoping to make gains in the county council elections on May 1st, capitalising on disappointment with Labour in government with an electorate not ready to forgive the Tories. Green councillors have railed against the Devolution White Paper, which they term a Whitehall power grab. They also identify significant shortcomings in the revised NPPF: whether that’s a flimsy commitment to never- more-needed genuinely affordable homes; and building commitments that leave the nation unable to comply with legally binding nature recovery targets.
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