Riddles in the Dark and Labour’s Housing Policy

The above is just a smattering of the land ownership that makes up the UK.  In fact a mixture of royalty, corporate, environmental and charitable interests privately holds 12% of all land.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, or UNESCO for short, has 31 sites or areas of World Heritage in the UK and Northern Ireland, and more cultural agencies are ratified by law. It’s not a monumental stretch to imagine why Local Authorities have planning constraints when faced with housing developments.

Conveyancing to the layman is simple, it’s the transfer of ownership from one to another. Conveyancing to a politician is a vote-winning manifesto. Conveyancing to a conveyancer is a heartburn-inducing string of intricateness.

It is said cheerily at times that one of the most fear-inducing statements is: “Don’t worry, I’m from the Government” and for good reason for a lot of truth is said in jest.

Politics is a tribal affair and it’s difficult to not ruffle the headdresses of some people when discussing Government policies.  So I mean this with no ill-will, regardless of the stripes or colours of the party – it’s the detail that matters, not the grandstanding headline or soundbites.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced at the Labour party conference in Liverpool that 5,000 new tax inspectors would be recruited, that’s quite the army to tackle the 1%, unless, of course, it’s not for them.  Before that mobilisation statement, the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced that to get house building moving, 300 new planning savants would be recruited and deployed.  And, when Prime Minister Starmer said that national need trumps local opposition, I stopped thinking about having to be introduced to one of the 300 marvel extended universe like-superhuman planning mega minds and reality kicked in – the Government is inviting litigation against it. The in-parts reclassification of the Green Belt, the Right to Light, and the Brownfield passports leading to urban densification – the political soundbite will be YIMBYS over NIMBYS, the media might regurgitate however ultimately this is the endgame; for every Government proposal there will be litigation to meet it.

Local Authorities, unlikely to some, will be the first litigation wave as they find themselves with housing construction quotas they will not be able to fulfill, on abutting land they do not own. Local Authorities will be the second wave also, placing pylons next to schools for GB Energy will face local legal friction. Corporations, environmentalists, landowners, and we the lowly dwelling dwellers will pony up in group litigation action, like two bison fighting in a field for dominance, yet the spoils of war will not come cheap. It’s your money the Government will use and it’s your money that will fuel the private litigation.

This is less Avengers Assemble and more akin to Riddles in the Dark a chapter from JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit for all involved.