Michael Gove is right. Essential to a true democracy is the idea that local communities should have some control over their surroundings. They must not have change rammed down their throats just so someone can make money. The great cynicism of Brexit was the cry “take back control”. The government took back control only to give it all to themselves, to deny it to national and local governments. Every power “repatriated” to Britain was seized by Whitehall.
Nowhere is control more sensitive than over planning, one of the few areas of discretion that had been with local elected councils. This was effectively ended by the Cameron government in its planning and housing reforms of 2012. These imposed bizarre algorithmic targets for population expansion on every locality, based on a confusion of need with demand. The purpose was to meet an arbitrary election pledge to “build 200,000 houses”. The result can be seen in the sprawling Legoland estates that proliferated outside villages and towns across south-east England. They set it fair to becoming the Los Angeles of Europe.
