Nimbyism will cost the Tories new voters
on a perennial shortage
The Conservatives have long struggled “to work out how to ensure a decent supply of affordable houses”, writes James Forsyth in The Times. And it is “the repeated failure to do this” that is “one of the reasons why property prices have risen so fast and home ownership seems out of reach for so many”. “As if to demonstrate this problem anew”, former prime minister Theresa May spoke in the House of Commons this week, objecting to the latest plans to simplify the planning system. She complained the proposals would lead to “the wrong homes being built in the wrong places”. “It’s an unconvincing argument”, that raises the question of “wrong for whom? Presumably not the people who’d certainly buy them”. Right now “the electoral landscape is set fair” for the Conservatives, Forsyth writes. “But if they fail to get enough homes built, then the tide will turn against them.”