The community facilities that come with larger projects are also really important to avoid widespread local opposition from what I might call MIMBYs.
The GPs surgery’s etc really matter.
We are also going to struggle to overcome MIMBY opposition when projects are badly run and there is no consultation. When they wanted to build the Oxford-Cambridge expressway they refused to speak to the affected local villages even though they would have benefited from the project.
Yes you do have to speak to the rich, community spirited older people when you want to do stuff. I am sure Isembard Kingdom Brunel did and carefully explained to them that they would be able to get to London for a day trip.
Good points, well made. To get hyper-local about it, though in Purley and Coulsdon the NIMBY concern around demolishing bungalows to put up small developments of apartments was prevalent ("we don't want flats, we want single family homes" etc), there was also not enough said or done by the council for some time about services like GP practices, space in primary schools etc etc.
It would be interesting to take a look at what's working well in those cities that seem to be building homes as fast as they can. Manchester/Greater Manchester springs to mind.
And on a related point, in the short to medium term perhaps it makes sense to give greater support to YIMBY places who are showing that they can get stuff done rather than your Ox/Camb arc type places that don't want to grow.
Sam, have you looked into the success story that was the area of the south of Croydon borough that is Purley and Coulsdon? As far as I know, it is the only area in Greater London that exceeded build targets and did it for a number of years. Though there are one or two brownfield large estates (eg Cane Hill in Coulson by Barratt), the vast majority were small (<10 apartments) redevelopments of detached homes in residential areas.
This did change, though, when the control of the council changed a couple of years back and they decided to go "full NIMBY" and do everything they could (as you said, planning gives committees a lot of power to do things the way they wish) to stop any more of this.
The community facilities that come with larger projects are also really important to avoid widespread local opposition from what I might call MIMBYs.
The GPs surgery’s etc really matter.
We are also going to struggle to overcome MIMBY opposition when projects are badly run and there is no consultation. When they wanted to build the Oxford-Cambridge expressway they refused to speak to the affected local villages even though they would have benefited from the project.
Yes you do have to speak to the rich, community spirited older people when you want to do stuff. I am sure Isembard Kingdom Brunel did and carefully explained to them that they would be able to get to London for a day trip.
Good points, well made. To get hyper-local about it, though in Purley and Coulsdon the NIMBY concern around demolishing bungalows to put up small developments of apartments was prevalent ("we don't want flats, we want single family homes" etc), there was also not enough said or done by the council for some time about services like GP practices, space in primary schools etc etc.
Here it is schools, sewers and GPs that people are worried about.
It would be interesting to take a look at what's working well in those cities that seem to be building homes as fast as they can. Manchester/Greater Manchester springs to mind.
And on a related point, in the short to medium term perhaps it makes sense to give greater support to YIMBY places who are showing that they can get stuff done rather than your Ox/Camb arc type places that don't want to grow.
Sam, have you looked into the success story that was the area of the south of Croydon borough that is Purley and Coulsdon? As far as I know, it is the only area in Greater London that exceeded build targets and did it for a number of years. Though there are one or two brownfield large estates (eg Cane Hill in Coulson by Barratt), the vast majority were small (<10 apartments) redevelopments of detached homes in residential areas.
This did change, though, when the control of the council changed a couple of years back and they decided to go "full NIMBY" and do everything they could (as you said, planning gives committees a lot of power to do things the way they wish) to stop any more of this.