Keir Starmer’s speech to the Labour party conference was good. It was that of an expectant prime minister, of sonorous phrases and few promises. Then came two words that fell flat: new towns. There would be “Labour new towns”, whatever they are, referred to in later briefing as in the south, on the “M1 corridor”, brooking no local opposition and “the equivalent of five Milton Keynes.” Land for them would be purchased compulsorily at a knock-down price. It sounded ominously like the HS2 of housing.
The best bit of gossip out of Liverpool was that the bedside reading of the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is Paul Johnson’s excellent bestseller, Follow the Money. Reeves should turn to page 231 and share it with Starmer. It discusses the curse of Britain’s geographical inequality, and the significance of Boris Johnson’s “defining mission”, levelling up. In his speech Starmer dismissed levelling up with a jeer. He later regurgitated what seemed the result of a good lunch with the construction lobby: five Milton Keynes sprawling across the south-east and an end to local democracy in planning. Housing policy was to be conducted from Westminster. Eat your heart out, north of England.
