Do we have strategic leaders anymore? What is the strategy that will make things happen, that will connect different policies? Headlines may be enough to satisfy tabloid writers and readers but do not automatically turn into action plans or even common sense.
Broken promises and insufficient investment under Tories
Such was the case with our erstwhile Tory government. ‘Levelling up’ sounded good but what did it actually mean? Have all those so-called ‘red wall’ towns and cities levelled up? Not according to the evidence from communities let down by the promise. Similarly, stopping the ‘small boats’, the confected mask for Conservative xenophobia which saved successive leaders the trouble of a thought-out, humane solution to the growth in asylum seeking?
And what about housing? Inadequate stock, unaffordable to rent or buy for many; insufficient investment, especially in social rental homes, as developers’ profits are protected; development blocked to protect party votes, are all acknowledged problems lacking practical, resourced plans. This pattern suggests that under the Conservative administrations the future of the nation mattered less than the survival of the party and the interests of its wealthy backers, but also a lack of leaders with strategic nous.
Land use strategy essential
Labour has started with ambitious announcements, but has yet to show evidence of substance to follow them up. Its priority objective of economic growth is indeed in part to be delivered through prolific house-building. Focussing on marginal areas of so-called Green Belt, redubbed ‘grey’, each local authority will be required to build.
How, though, can a district planner see or influence people’s need, options, transport etc when they only see their own back yard? Where investments would be best located must surely be part of a bigger picture, a larger geography, a role above their narrow job description? A land-use strategy for counties as a whole rather than piecemeal projects seems essential.
Countywide approach to planning needed for Sussex
In Sussex, surely the epitome of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’, there appears to be no umbrella strategy linking population, future jobs, transport infrastructure or housing need amidst the landscape assets of the Downs, Ashdown Forest and myriad picturesque villages. To build thousands of executive homes to the benefit of land-owners and property developers in inappropriate locations will not create the affordable homes for those in most need, where they are needed. Communities have been on the defensive over ad hoc plans to urbanise farmland.
At the same time, large-scale house-building has been randomly allowed by District Councils on productive farmland, as owners take advantage of enticing lump sums offered by developers, when wider strategic goals such as energy and food security, the environment and logistics need consideration, if not priority. Whether the determination of the new cabinet to achieve its huge building target makes such developments more or less certain is as yet unclear. Such a matter needs devolving, surely not to each under-resourced community, but to the whole county or even all Sussex, in order that solutions come from shared local knowledge and engagement.
At present, no countywide democratic authority seems to have forward plans, accountability or resources to assess such issues. True, a long-term Local Nature Recovery Strategy and a Transport for the South-East Strategic Investment Plan are in gestation, but how can these be effective without knowing what other land use may be mandated to the area? Construction and associated infrastructure can benefit or damage Sussex, depending where it is carried out. Where can house-building do the most good and least damage? Where can it most meet needs of local people, current and future?
The opportunistic acquisition and concreting of productive or nature-rich land without a proper multi-factorial strategy is no answer to this question. The monetisation of all that is good for the soul or the planet is simply not acceptable. I fear for lovely Sussex if such criteria are to be given higher priority than what makes these places so special.
Credible and transparent policies needed to resolve conflicting agendas
After 14 years of Conservative irresponsibility and self-interest, without strategy or concern for the people’s well-being and near-irreparable damage to the country, it has been refreshing to hear the Labour leader being frank that it may take 10 years to effect some of his plans. Housing is one of many challenges along with economic development, climate, food, jobs and landscape.
Where these agendas come into conflict, this must be resolved with expertise in a publicly credible and transparent strategy, not via ad hoc arm-wrestling between small communities’ self-interest and well-imbursed lawyers. County Councils should be skilled with the appropriate expertise and district planners who are accountable for the wider area.
One solution could be a City Mayoralty for Brighton and the Sussexes. A region thus equipped to integrate Whitehall mandates and policies in line with local realities, needs and people would then have the strategies to make things happen.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
