This answer fails to deal with the question’s main point. If you are serious about levelling up you do need to use the planning system to funnel more of the new homes investment to places that want to level up.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (75745):
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he taking to avoid concentrating new housing investment in areas already facing shortages of services and infrastructure from rapid development. (75745)
Tabled on: 01 November 2022
Answer:
Lucy Frazer:
We are committed to enabling more homes to be built in the right places, and that is why we are taking steps in our Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to get more local plans in place to deliver infrastructure in co-ordination with new homes. To make sure these homes are supported by appropriate infrastructure and services, we are introducing a new Infrastructure Levy to replace Section 106 obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy.
We will also require local authorities to prepare infrastructure delivery strategies to ensure the right balance between delivering homes and infrastructure. This will build on policies we have already enacted in the National Planning Policy Framework, which set an expectation that local plan policies should make sufficient provision for housing, commercial development, infrastructure and community facilities.
The answer was submitted on 09 Nov 2022 at 17:57.
November 14, 2022
Does anyone believe that yet more building is a popular policy?
We are overcrowded, overstretched and utterly stressed out without a single extra brick being laid!
November 14, 2022
Cuibono hear, hear! And there seem to me to be plenty of building going on anyway!
I nearly missed a turning recently because I didnāt recognise it with the block of flats that wasnāt there before.
November 14, 2022
Dear John,
very quick question. I’m trying to find out what the government’s plan is on Brexit and what targets it is using to measure success.
Where would I find this information?
Many thanks,
Ignoramus
November 14, 2022
Wasted question. Socialist Tories have found they cannot build houses at the same pace to match the number of their mass immigration policy. Food production cut not increased per Brexit promises, Human waste cannot keep up so is emptied in rivers, arable productive land comes a poor fourth for houses, wind machines and solar farms!
A bit like their economic plan they are giving away more, wasting more than the speed and excuses to fleece us for more tax!
JR, those with the broadest shoulders and fairness rot will be used by Sunak. Does this mean he will get his wife to pay back tax for the years when she claimed non Dom status?
A bit like their law and order, if a criminal is very unlucky to be caught they are even more unlucky to be prosecuted, even more unlucky to go to jail, but will only go to jail for the shortest time possible including murderers!
November 14, 2022
Sharon. I didn’t recognise a major route in Sussex where I lived for over 20 years. There are literally thousands of new homes going up continually in Sussex and more in planning but no new facilities and grid locked roads. Getting from Chichester to and through Arundel is a nightmare every single day. One white van man said his job is unbelievably stressful now. It takes a couple of weeks to see a GP, hospital waiting times are long even for serious conditions and no NHS dentists now. Not only that but a house that resembles a rabbit hutch is extortionate. Ā£250k for a studio flat. Ā£1000 a month for a 2 bed flat to rent. Utterly bonkers but so far 41000 illegals have come and nobody does a thing about it.
November 14, 2022
+many Sharon
They are making what once was our country unrecognisable.
Part of the plan I daresay.
Very much like āThe Twilight Zoneā.
Messing with our minds.
November 14, 2022
Its a popular policy with the Albanian community
November 14, 2022
+many
Phewā¦yesā¦thank goodness.
They were most upset yesterday..flags and statues etc.
A nice new (free?) four bedroomed house might placate?
November 14, 2022
here’s a novel idea. Request young families in towns all over the country register for a ballot on swapping their terraced house for a new house that would otherwise go to immigrants. The latter can be housed in the vacated home, if necessary.
November 14, 2022
Culbono
So the answer in the reply is more tax on new housing !
That seems to be this Governments answer to everything, More tax, More tax, More tax.
There will eventually come a point, and we are close to it now, where people will simply say why bother to work or invest in a business, if I get next to nothing out of it !
November 14, 2022
+many
Totally agree.
Just a couple of hours ago I was talking to someone who observed that very soon the mugs who keep the whole show on the road via their taxes will JUST GIVE UP!
The end game must be to keep us captive in ā15 minuteā cities living on UBI under pain of a Ā£70 fine if we stray out of our designated area?
Will the IMF fund it all? š
November 14, 2022
Let’s face it, nobody wants to live in Bramley or in Leyburn. They all want to live in Cambridge, Oxford or certain bits of London. I believe Manchester is still pretty nice in parts.
That is why people like me in North Cambridgeshire, find our little rural hide-aways turning into vast suburbs. No doctors, no shops (one village convenience store and a hairdresser), a bulging Primary School, roads designed a century ago when people moved by steam tramway, rode on horses and walked. No police presence of any sort. Also, just two miles away in the town centre, lots of HMOs in local hotels full of various types of immigrants, many of them extremely nice, hard working people. Some not.
The Church has no Vicar. It stands, damp and neglected. It used, as recently as the 1980s, to be a hub where people met regularly.
Levelling up? Fracking, coal mining and power stations please!
November 14, 2022
An insulting remark about Bramley and Leyburn, probably based on ignorance. No, not everyone wants to live in flat, dreary, pretentious Cambridge, and your rural idyll sounds dire.
November 14, 2022
It’s a point of view. Live with it.
November 14, 2022
Cuibono
The house prices don’t seem to come down, the place gets ever more overcrowded and disorderly, the services get CUT and the council tax goes UP !!! How so ???
November 14, 2022
NLA,
Simply the result of 15 years of money printing and virtually zero interest rates. Now people complain about “eye watering” mortgage rates, when the BoE rate is a “staggering” 3%.
PS – Just look at the graph of gold prices since around 1980 – says it all.
November 14, 2022
+many
Councils have to pay for their diversity and inclusion courses somehow!
And all the rest of the useless and offensive cr*p they get up to.
November 14, 2022
The response sounds like a Dame Lucy Argument !
November 14, 2022
Well, the European Union seems to be levelling up rather well.
Britain’s stock market has lost its position as Europe’s most-valued, with France taking the top spot, data shows.
A weak pound, fears of recession in the UK and surging sales at French luxury goods makers are thought to be behind the shift, according to data from Bloomberg.
Your brexit just keeps on giving, doesn’t it?
November 14, 2022
Nonsense NHL
You are ignoring the report showing how the EU is sliding back against rest of the world in terms of wealth.
November 14, 2022
Indeed, but levelling up is a rather silly and nonsense agenda anyway. Many people working in richer areas are rather worse off after housing/commuting/childcare costs than others in poorer areas with far cheaper housing. Often paying far more taxes too yet being left with less disposable income after these costs.
Rees-Mogg on Mark Dolan last night ā āBoris was a great Prime Minister, he got the big things rightā. No Jacob, he saved us from Corbyn but he got all the other big things very wrong indeed.
The lockdown, the Northern Island Protocol, closing schools, stopping exams, the HS2 lunacy, test and trace, the vast government waste, enforced masks, firing care worker who refused the dangerous jabs, the size of the state, all the soft loans for millions of duff degrees, the dire NHS structure that kills hundreds of thousands and fails millions, the largely ineffective and often dangerous vaccines – even for children, appointing Sunak as Chancellor & allowing him his vast money printing, waste and currency debasement agenda, keeping Bailey at the BoE, eat out to help out, the road blocking agenda, the pushing of EV cars and so called “renewables”, the appalling Net Zero lunacy, the serial manifesto ratting on tax increases and the triple lock, the failure to deregulate and take advantage of Brexit properly, Party Gate, failing to deregulate, running a dire socialist government, not fracking, totally failing to control the borders, woke lunacy and plastic policeā¦ have I missed any others?
So what exactly are these “big things” that Boris did actually get right Jacob?
Reply. Jacob would reply 1. Driving Brexit through a hostile Parliament.2 Winning an election 3. Developing a vaccine 4 Getting earlier out of lockdown 5. Leading support for Ukraine against tge Russian invasion.
November 14, 2022
There is sensible article by Ross Clark in the Spectator:- The true cost of renewable energy.
He claims that;- “It costs around three or four times more to store a unit of electricity than it does to generate it in the first place.
If we are going to get anywhere near de-carbonising the electricity grid, we will have to invest in energy storage, at huge cost. At present we have the capacity to store less than an hourās worth of the countryās electricity demand, yet in winter conditions can be both windless and overcast for days at a time.” This storage problem is one of the reasons EV vehicles so often make little or no sense (that and the cost/weight/embedded energy/charge times/short life/limited range of the batteries. They also cause more CO2 emissions & not less overall.
In fact, storage can be done for slightly less than this. But it does waste large amounts of energy in the process and is very capital expensive indeed & often dangerous too. Far better when safely stored as coal, gas, oil, nuclear fuel and just generated when needed.
November 14, 2022
+1 LL.
Also with increasingly complex grid, the longer electricity travels, the more is lost. Of each megawatt generated some simply disappears. Perhaps others on this site can provide some figures for this fact.
November 14, 2022
Not only that but cabling up all these many wind turbines often under water and then maintaining this often cost more than it is worth for the small amounts of intermittent electricity they can produce. Further more the (usually) gas generators that back up supply for the intermittent renewables work far less efficiently as a result of doing this back up. They have to power up and down all the time to balance the system which is far less efficient.
November 14, 2022
BOF
When in Scotland one of my clients worked for the National Grid and was not very complementary regarding the loss of energy through transmission. He told me that the interconnector to Ireland in certain conditions the power sent down it was completely lost if the demand was low. That he explained was one of the biggest reasons for smothering South Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway with wind turbines was allowed because the government was told it could send everything to NI whatever the circumstances.
November 14, 2022
Sunak says taxes must go up. No they do not.
Did he forget he gave away Ā£11.6 billion to the world last week!
Ā£12 billion overseas aid.
Did he forget his school boy errors costing Ā£11.8 billion that he did not want to be investigated?
Ā£11 billion to EU each year after we left!
How about the Ā£62 million a year to France, scrap ECHR would be better.
91,000 civil servants from covid. JRM was going to cut Sunak reversed making no cut to head count.
BOE selling bonds at Ā£11 billion loss JR tells us.
Ā£33 million to check goods from GB to NI, no borders or checks we were told.
Give away fishing waters Ā£2 billion a year.
Let EU control our army, how much will it cost to follow EU foreign policy?
JR can snake Sunak count?
Hunt is on an EU mission to make UK less competitive than EU.
November 14, 2022
Tax rates may go up but this will give less tax overall. It looks like they are going to scrap the Non Dom status that for certain will reduce the overall tax take and deter inward investment too. The Non Doms will often just leave and become non resident this paying nothing in the UK when they were paying the non dom tax plus taxes on their UK incomes and on their spending.
Economic lunacy if they do this. But then Sunak even though Eat out to Help out was sensible.
November 14, 2022
Ā£150 billion for HS2, and billions to revamp parliament and even more billions on net-zero
November 14, 2022
Sir J, very selective memory here. 1. The revolting PCP we’re forced into accepting the May/Johnson appalling Brexit deal because you lost so large st the local and EU elections, and even your members could see they’d be history if they didn’t go along with some form of Brexit. 2. Winning an election against…..Corbyn. He only had to keep his mouth shut. 3. Rushed vaccine and lockdown, look at Sweden and compare. 4. Early out of lockdown, more like ‘oaky-coky are we in or are we out’
5. Bunter couldn’t have been happier than to get into a war and pretend to be a world statesman. Boris is a cheap entertainer, and chancer, with no competence for the job of government, and worse, no relationship with the truth, look at his leaving speech, complete rubbish from start to finish.
November 14, 2022
LL :
Ross Clark is correct. And when the wind turbine capacity factor of 33% is taken into account (BEIS Energy Brief 2022) at least 7.5 times installed wind energy capacity is required for any given amount of dispatchable energy.
The BEIS Net Zero Strategy claim that renewable energy will be abundant, cheap and always available at the flick of a switch is a lie.
BEIS know all of this and hence why there is no plan for back-up storage other than taking power from ev batteries. The plan is for demand managementā via volatile pricing and rationing via rolling blackouts.
November 14, 2022
Taking power from EV batteries make zero sense for the owners as they will be paid far less than the devaluation of their cars and batteries batteries due to the extra charges and discharges. Plus they might find the battery empty when they need to use it.
November 14, 2022
Even with rechargeable batteries, Christmas toys only last till February
November 14, 2022
My apologises to anyone who is offended by my use of an state religious term
November 14, 2022
Lifelogic
Agreed, few yet understand the continuous degradation that is caused by forever charging batteries, and quick charging at higher flow rates has an even higher degradation rate on a batteries storage capacity and life.
Those Ā£10,000 Plus batteries installed in cars will soon be worn out before they have even completed an average of 5 years of motoring if they are used in this way..
November 14, 2022
LL :
Absolutely correct.
But to degrade the ev batteries faster and leave ev owners without any battery power in the morning when they need to use the vehicle is part of the plan to promote “active travel” and public transport.
Not that I think the capacity of the local grids will cope with the necessary power demands of discharging and then re-charging or have the computing power/programming to handle all the evs.
November 15, 2022
Your assuming they want to succeed with a properly planned and costed successful energy transition.
-Unlikely given the policies & outputs so far.
– I would be more concerned about our voting integrity but voting or counting don’t seem to matter as what the government does in power is unrelated or perhaps only incidental at the best of times.
The globalists have 2 more years to destroy the UK, its taking shape nicely.
November 14, 2022
To reply – I and 2 I grant you.
3. The government did not develop the vaccine they injected it and coerced people to take them JCVI (wrongly it seems) advised they are safe and effective and a net positive. They have almost certainly have done more harm than good. Giving them to the young and children who generally had no need at all for any vaccines (even people who have already had Covid) was in my view criminal negligence.
4. not really very early at all way too long and it also did more harm than good in delaying natural “vaccinations” of the young by natural infection. Certain Tory MPs also appallingly attacked the sensible and surely correct Barrington Declaration People.
5. Let us hope this appalling war can end well and very soon. It looks rather bleak to me.
November 14, 2022
Even young people die and are crippled by Covid
November 14, 2022
Very very few and nearly all of them already have life-limiting conditions.
November 14, 2022
Children unfortunately die from all kinds of causes, Frances, luckily in relatively small numbers in modern times. You should be aware that the small number of UK child deaths attributed to Covid have been of children with other serious health conditions, some life-threatening.
November 15, 2022
as I said to another poster thats a disgusting remark
November 15, 2022
but they would have lived without Covid
November 14, 2022
Re your pt 3: Andrew Bridgen MP says “There is a correlation between the vaccine uptake and excess deaths across the world.” The statistics I’ve seen bear him out, but perhaps more definite conclusions are awaited. So I think it behoves our good host to pause his compliments to Johnson on Covid ‘vaccine development’, while the jury is still out on the matter.
November 14, 2022
+1. Also a correlation with the dates of the vaccinations as they did them by age range too. Yet still they push them.
November 14, 2022
Does this take in to account that the NHS in the UK was effectively shutdown for all illnesses other than Covid?
November 14, 2022
I’d say criminal recklessness.
November 14, 2022
Reply to reply. I would say to Jacob. 1. Mrs May’s appalling agreement should have been torn up. 2. Tick that box. 3. A vaccine that has proved very dangerous, causing many deaths and serious side effects, some of which I have witnessed. 4. A lockdown that should never have been introduced, witness what happened in Sweden/Florida/Faroe islands and pretty well all of an impossible to lock down or vacccinate Africa. 5. We cannot afford to pay for the dangerous war in Ukraine.
November 14, 2022
In response to Sir Johns reply:
Why do parties keep MP’s that are hostile to democracy? Why don’t they remove the whip? We may have left EU membership, but did we ever come out from EU rule? I think not.
Winning an election via fraud. The government abandoned it’s manifesto quick smart. That is nothing to brag about.
Yes, agreed, Boris threw vast amounts of money at developing vaccines.
Getting out of lockdown earlier is like saying I stopped beating my wife.
Leading support for Ukraine. Agreed. I am not convinced Boris did it for the right reasons (Boris’s ego probably took priority) and we cannot afford to be the biggest financial supporter of Ukraine, but hey … it’s only money! Plenty more where that came from!
November 14, 2022
Recently 90% of those Covid patients clogging up ICUs were people so selfish they had not had the jabs. Sweden has a tiny number of people and more than 50% live alone. They also lost lots of people in care homes now being admitted. London is the most densely populated city in Europe.
November 14, 2022
FT
Not true. For many months now the people catching Covid, going to hospital and passing it on, are the vaccinated and boosted. I witnessed this phenomenon from inside hospital! That is before even considering the deaths and harms from these so called vaccines. See the Yellow Card Reports.
November 15, 2022
You cannot know the medical situation of other people so your remark is anecdotal at best.
November 14, 2022
Those old chestnuts are still being repeated, I see. Sweden has a population of 10 million, hardly ‘tiny’, with many concentrated in big cities. They had no lockdown and carried on socialising, whether single-person or multiple -person households. The proportion of single-person households in Sweden is similar to Germany, around 42%
https://wearesololiving.com/countries-solo-households-commonplace/
Sweden had a slightly higher Covid death rate than Germany, but much of it was caused, as you point out, Frances, by shunting the elderly out of hospitals into care homes, as we did here but Germany didn’t. So: similar percentage of single-person homes in both, similar figures per head of Covid deaths in both. Germany locked down and Sweden didn’t – conclusion: lockdown made no difference to health outcomes. That’s been the finding again and again from studies that made international comparisons on lockdown and health outcomes.
November 15, 2022
London is the most densely populated city in Europe. There are so many differences comparisons just dont wash. Germany has 3 times the hospital beds the UK has.
Germany has three doctors per 1000 population. The UK has two.
Germany has three times as many hospital beds compared to the UK.
Germany spends 11.7% of its GDP on health, Britain 10%.
Most Germans pay 7% of their income for healthcare. Their employer pays the same.
Most people Iāve spoken to who are familiar with the German healthcare system say it offers a higher standard of service.But people in Germany have to pay for their system directly out of their salary. Some pay many hundreds of euros each month. Thatās possible because of Germanyās strong economy.
November 14, 2022
reply to reply…He had nothing to do with developing a vaccine. In fact if you read the book written by Gilbert & Green who co-shared the main thrust on producing the ‘Oxford vaccine’, Government was/is particularly sluggish on providing funds/encouragement on these scientific breakthroughs. His Government was also slow in ‘getting out of lockdown’ your memory of events fails you. The hostile Parliament demonstrated how many so-called Conservatives were actually Remainers and remain so to this day.
November 14, 2022
‘Vaxxers : a pioneering moment in scientific history’
Gilbert, Sarah, 1962-
Currently available at Spencers Wood library.
November 14, 2022
LL: You missed out Johnson ‘s trip to Kiev in April to stop Zelensky from agreeing to a peace settlement, then under discussion in Turkey. I wonder how many bereaved parents and spouses there are in Ukraine now as a result.
November 14, 2022
+++++100%
November 14, 2022
LL. Spot on with your observations about cost of living further north and especially in Scotland. Houses are cheaper, Council tax is cheaper with water rates included, free that and this courtesy of the Barnet formula and all services like vets, builders, hairdressers etc cheaper too. Still they moan! Try living in the real world.
November 14, 2022
Reply to reply: 1 Brexit didn’t get done, 2 Winning an election (so what ? and against what ?)
November 14, 2022
Ukraine was none of our business, but Boris, posing as Churchill, thought he would interfere, at our expense of course, and at the expense of prolonging the war and its misery.
November 14, 2022
The tories will totally destroy this country (already have really).
And I had such high hopes when we got rid of Blair and then won Brexit.
There was never any intention of delivering what people wanted was there?
We now have Starmer to look forward to.
And all along, it seems to me Lab/Con were singing from the same hymn book.
November 14, 2022
Seems so. An eighty-seat majority totally wasted by Boris and this dis-functional, divided but essentially socialist, & largely EUphile incompetent party. With only an even worse option waiting in the wings.
Nigel Farage has a good video: “I despise what the Conservatives have done to Britain” I agree fully with it.
Cameron too wasted his golden opportunity with his Cast Iron, pre-election ratting & then opting for a remainer, green crap, tax to death socialism against the wishes and needs of the country, the party members & voters/supporters.
November 14, 2022
+++100%
November 14, 2022
Nil desperandum, CUIBONO. The Reform Party, with its genuinely conservative values, is gaining momentum.
https://www.reformparty.uk/
And resist – keep using cash.
November 14, 2022
Reform will almost certainly not get a single MP though. They will just give us the appalling prospect of Starmer/Sturgeon.
November 14, 2022
LL,
Vote Sunak and Hunt you already have a Sturgeon and Starmer in office! Reported Rachel Reevesā husband heads the economic unit in No.10. Truss got rid of these types and Sunak brought them back!
As matter of fact and record Tories worse on tax, debt, deficit, illegal immigration, migration, worse public service with NHS 7,000,000 waiting list (Hunt failed the nation for six years in this role), no GP appts, no dentists, overcrowded schools, mass house building, mass give always of our taxes for nothing in return.
Are you feeling okay LL? Your favourite phrase about tax and piss down the drain is epitomised by the pro EU Chinese authoritarian lock down duo! How much has he given away and lost already, yet in stark contrast tells us today taxes must go up! So he can give billions to corrupt Ukraine, billions more on the world scam on climate scam, overseas aid, EU and a special give away to hostile France!
Hunt seems to forget Sunak caused the financial mess not Truss, but Sunak happy to go along with the lie.
Oh, I forgot, Sunak said he will serve with integrity, that lasted two days before he broke everything he said to get elected even changing his stance on fracking to make us energy independent. Sunak said he was going to implement 2019 manifesto, today he says he must raise taxes!
Sunak stopped fracking but happy to import from Qatar and US and then create an inter connector to give away to Germany! He is an idiot we cannot afford in office. Sunak happy to transfer jobs and industry to China so UK can buy goods made from Coal fired power station and transport back. He thinks that is good for the planet. Imbecile. Good news though Hunt buying a new carpet for his official flat! How many times have these flats been refurbished at our expense in the last four months!
The Starmer Sturgeon threat was an old trick to scare by Osborne. I think it no longer has any merit after the socialist Tories have implemented so many Labour policies and having their relations working with them in the economic office of No.10.
November 14, 2022
Don’t fall for that. What could be worse than what we’ve got? Vote for what you want. That’s the only way democracy will work.
November 14, 2022
LL
I cannot disagree. But if we do not start somewhere we will spend years watching the complete demolition of the UK, whatever party or coalition is in power. If I do not vote for Reform, I do not vote at all!
November 14, 2022
Well if Reform dilute votes away from Conservative who is to blame?
Successive Governments and Cabinets have caused so much distress that they have it coming.
November 14, 2022
Hear Hear
November 14, 2022
Neither did UKIP (one MP, maybe) but they rose from nowhere, got millions of votes (thwarted by FPTP), scared the pants off the main parties, and forced the biggest political change in my lifetime. I will ALWAYS be grateful to Farage and UKIP, even if they never rise again they have done more for the benefit of the UK than most politicians.
UKIP may have had a better result at the following election if the CONS hadn’t conned us into believing they supported democracy. Look at them now!
November 14, 2022
Seriously though.
Would it actually ever be possible for a new party to āsweep the boardā?
I mean I donāt really understand why that canāt happen but it just never does.
They canāt get the numbers because two party system too entrenched?
Or is it something mathematical to do with FPTP?
I suppose we need PR..but it wasnāt popular when (Clegg?) proposed it.
November 15, 2022
What a defeatist attitude! It is exactly that thinking and voting that has condemned us to the 2 party system which has resulted in the fine mess you’ve got us into!
November 14, 2022
Get my vote – Lets face it, any government that creates a department called ālevelling- upā just to appease Gove, deserves to lose the next election
November 14, 2022
The Reform Party seems to be preparing and positioning itself well in readiness to achieve results when the opportunity emerges.
November 14, 2022
Mary M. Yes. The Reform manifesto could be mistaken for a true Conservative one. It’s full of common sense.
November 14, 2022
++++1
No right minded person could vote socialist Tory. What would they be voting for? Would anyone believe their manifesto! Just empty your pockets and bank account and give to Hunt and Sunak you know you can trust them!
November 14, 2022
Please Please, would all Redwoodian total spectrum denialists, vote for the Reform Party. Splitting the Conservative Party into not just the current two but three factions, would bury neoliberal Thatcherite austerity economics, forever. Particularly if Labour and the Lib Dems, had coalition candidates for red and orange voting constituencies.
November 14, 2022
When the polls show a level of support low enough to show there is no chance of electoral success then voters will vote for parties other than the two main ones.
You ought to be happy acorn.
November 15, 2022
The English voters are not that bright. They vote by the colour of the rosette regardless of what it’s pinned on.
November 15, 2022
Why is it you lefties dislike the voters so much.
November 14, 2022
My last hope is Reform. My worst nightmare is a government comprised of one or more of the main parties. I do fear that our country is gone, forever. The damage to society and culture is irreversible.
Woke rules ok, we ‘women’ will no longer exist, we will all have badges stating our preferred pronouns and using the wrong pronoun will be height of criminality, history will be rewritten with the UK as the bad guy for absolutely everything, especially Churchill who was the worst ‘racist’ ever, ancient Brits who denuded every country in the world of their wealth and made everyone a slave. We NEVER did any good in the world, it was ALL bad, and ALL Brits (the white ones anyway) are bad and racist and soooo privileged, and we NEVER do any good for anyone. That’s the message folks. Get used to it!
November 14, 2022
What is even worse Shirley is the they seem to enjoy saying it, you can almost see the smile and glee on some media presenters faces when they sprout such views !
But more importantly why are the politicians of this Country, and the legal system, pandering to this very small minority of people ?
November 14, 2022
Who has been watching the BBC then?
November 14, 2022
Shirley, our new Gen Z’s are going to mute themselves. No one will dare to talk to them soon. This weekend I was introduced to a new set of pronouns that people want to be referred to as: The ze/hir, ze/zir pronoun sets come from the trans community as another gender-neutral pronoun set. It’s up to each individual to decide which pronoun best fits them and their identities. Ze is typically pronounced like the letter Z. Ze, zir, zie and ze and are all gender pronouns ā much like he/him, she/her and they/them.
I don’t understand their logic, if they want a gender-neutral pronoun why isn’t it just ‘Zi’ for everyone, and ‘Zis’ plural? My Dad thinks he solves this by calling everyone Pal, I’m sure that will be banned soon (too familiar :)).
November 14, 2022
I am not so tolerant. If they berate me for using him or her, I call them ‘it’ or ‘that’. It does wind them up, but they wind me up too!
November 15, 2022
If you pay any attention to this PC gibberish, you’re playing their game, a-tracy. The only way to deal with the woke media is to turn it off, never watch it again, and do something more rewarding with your life. Keep up with events with GB News if you like. Consider joining a group of like-minded people and actively combating the woke/globalist takeover in what ever ways you can. Obviously, for a member that would include resigning from the Conservative Party.
November 15, 2022
You know Clough, if you work in the public sector, especially the university sector you canāt ignore it or you could lose your job. Employers could also find themselves in a sticky wicket if they ignored a request. You may be in a position that you can ignore this growing issue but lots of people arenāt.
November 14, 2022
The 3 main parties in Westminster (Labour, LibDem and CON) are best thought of as a 3-legged stool with very slightly different length legs, so it might wobble a little bit (ie flexibility) but it will not collapse. The three, slightly different, legs provide stability for the seat (the Establishment).
Unless one of the legs is broken, the seat remains in place. FPTP is intended to ensure that none of the legs can be broken.
It will need a massive rejection of one of the “legs” to force change. If you want reform, you have to vote for reform.
November 14, 2022
A clever analogy and confirming the view that a massive reduction in support for one leg – it is coming on the Tory leg , will destablise the status quo.
November 14, 2022
I’m voting Reform Donna. There is no point voting for anything else.
November 14, 2022
I shall be voting Reform too!
November 14, 2022
And meanwhile more virtue signalling ā Watching the parliament channel this morning instead of the news and its showing a recording from the 4th Nov, UK Youth Parliament ā¦I thought that parliamentary time and its staff was precious, Iād suggest allowing young people to run parliament for a day, who canāt vote until 18, as a complete waste of resources apart from a PR opportunity for MPs and government
November 14, 2022
Donna, how do you explain the SNP then, a minority party at one time? Many people supporting them locally don’t actually support their key aim, ‘independence from the UK’. I know Scots that felt Labour took them for granted. I’m like Blair’s government was made up of a vast majority of Scottish MPs that promoted Scotland gave you devolution and a generous settlement and in the process wiped themselves out!
November 14, 2022
Blair destabilised the stool with his flawed devolution. The Scottish Parliament is elected by a form of Proportional voting …… which gave the Scottish socialist voters an opportunity to switch from voting Labour.
The Labour Party – one leg of the stool – was broken in Scotland. And it’s why, even now, Labour will struggle to get a majority in a UK-wide General Election.
It is recognised that a large proportion of SNP voters don’t want independence: they want more devolution and use the SNP to extract more money and concessions from the cowards in the Westminster Uni-Party.
November 14, 2022
Donna, sorry about the use of ‘I’m like’ for ‘I said that…’ I spent the weekend with gen Z!
November 14, 2022
I can understand Scots voting for the SNP, even if they don’t want independence. They are pretty safe as the SNP would have to win a referendum, however, the SNP does excel at getting more money from the UK government and splashing it on freebies for the Scots. Few would turn it down.
November 14, 2022
It is not SNP excelling, it is merely years of weak and watery response when bullied. Repeat ad infinitum ‘ there is no reason for Barnett – take it away.’
November 14, 2022
It’s a given that anyone with half a brain will vote for any of the legacy parties ever again. There is nothing between them and they all lie and deceive. They are all green religious eco loons determined to bankrupt us on the alter of net zero exporting our manufacturing to China and elsewhere without generating cheap power. They are all left wing woke/pc fools pro open borders mass legal and illegal immigration. We need something better, real reform. A Party that’s prepared to put an axe to the quangos, Councils, administrators in the NHS etc. Get 5.6 million off of benefits and into jobs by time limiting those benefits. Why should my wife and I have our taxes increased to pay for them? Remove any non job with Diversity or Climate Change in the title. The Tory’s have failed and after 12.5 years are not delivering ANYTHING other than more debt.
November 14, 2022
@Cuibono + 1
It is Parliament that as a collective that has destroyed the UK.
They didnāt believe in Brexit so are still fighting it. They donāt believe in Democracy so are fighting it. They donāt believe in responsibility so are fighting it.
As Careerist they are all to happy just rubber stamping the directives they received from their unelected, unaccountable overlords the EU Commission. While tying to usurp the jobs of local councils on the pretence they had a function. Now they have no idea of what it means to stand up and be a responsible part of a functioning sovereign democracy
While there are a small minority in the HoC that understand duty and calling, the rest are happy to let things decline and diminish.
November 14, 2022
Well said, Ian B.
November 14, 2022
+many
You explained that all so well.
And sadly I can see that you are absolutely right.
November 14, 2022
It all seems to read as a pass the buck reply.
Local authorities have so much on their plates they are firefighting in every department and I do not think they have the expertise to deal with the vast majority of what is expected of them.
The housing developers run rings round them.
November 14, 2022
……………….the local authorities have so much on their plate”. Really? I worked in one local authority for a year having retired from a real career. No one I met was rushed off their feet or had much to do. Many spent their time surfing the internet or “consulting”(Chatting) every one about nothing. Managers were low calibre wishy washy net zero, left wing woke fools. No one was put under pressure to increase capacity, reduce numbers or efficiency. Work from home whilst walking the dog, washing, ironing, shopping etc etc. Workload never checked. I found the culture lazy and shocking. I left at the earliest opportunity.
November 14, 2022
If the government wants to provide homes for the mass immigration it is inviting into this country, then planning is barely possible. It will be a case of whatever is convenient, the best and productive arable land is just as good as a flood plain where housing is concerned. Make them 3 stories, 1 metre between properties and postage stamp gardens and there is MONEY to be made. The only thing they may get is a new supermarket, because there’s money to be made!! Why care about doctors, hospitals and schools? No profit there, just extra cost!
I suspect the money will dry up, thanks to Sunak and Hunt. What happens then? Cheaper housing due to repossessions? I suspect the cheaper housing will be very welcome, the repossessions not so much.
November 14, 2022
+1
November 14, 2022
For more years than I care to remember I have watched green fields and ancient buildings and beautiful town centres being gradually wrecked.
It is speeding up now.
The fields have been swallowed up, the towns ruined because people have moved out of the big cities ( wickedly called āoverspillā) to make room for immigrants.
Tolkienās āThe Scouring of the Shireā.
November 14, 2022
Cities are becoming non-British, one by one. Naturally, they choose politicians that reflect the majority population of their city. The indigenous may be the majority in the more rural areas, but they have little influence overall and they won’t stay rural for long at the current rate of immigration.
November 14, 2022
Shirley M
Totally agree
November 14, 2022
If it’s not houses then it’s solar panels. Christ knows where they think our food is coming from.
November 14, 2022
Iām afraid itās cricket flour and mealworms for us.
They donāt require countryside to breed!
Not to mention 3D printed āmeatāand suchlike.
I expect the 1% think they will eat venison from their ārewildedā farmland.
Whereās Robin Hood when you need him?
November 14, 2022
Sir John, I see Lucy Frazer is very new in the job, as the Tories’ 14th Housing Minister since 2010, so perhaps she needs a bit of time to settle down. However, I do hope her sense of priorities has improved. Her outstanding achievement when it came to doing what you’re doing and proposing legislation, was to deal in 2018 with an apparently pressing national crisis (!) known as ‘upskirting’. Her bill removed the common law requirement of at least two witnesses to the previously applied offence of offending against public decency. Another example of the politicised legal establishment suppressing common law rights.
November 14, 2022
I assume you are male, Clough, from your response. I believe that if you were female (like me) ‘upskirting’ and similar unwanted vulgar and offensive incidents rarely take place where others can easily witness what individuals are doing – as in shops’ fitting rooms, crowded public transport or open spaces at night.
November 14, 2022
Clough
As long as she understands the basic principles of housing development.
1000 new builds generate to the given area minimum numbers of:-
Vehicles 1600
Residents 2500
Until the construction industry builds all the required roads and increase the capacity of the existing network, the schools, medical centres and recreation areas, before commencing the property construction and the costs will be met by the new property purchasers in their purchase price, nothing will ever change. It always gets dumped onto the existing local authorities to pick up the slack which just never happens.
November 14, 2022
So exactly which places does Lucy & this government consider to be the “right places”. No one surely would want to put them in the wrong places so the statement is totally meaningless rather like most government answers.
November 14, 2022
Interesting analysis in this weekend’s The Sunday Times, on the subject of housing affordability. The only ‘profession’ now able to get a mortgage for the average house in England & Wales is ……………. a FTSE 100 CEO. A chartered accountant could only do that in 38% of the country. The problem isn’t a lack of housing (look out of the train window): it is relentless population growth, driven by unwanted immigration – and tolerated by your party because it gives an illusion of economic ‘growth’. We need to de-populate. We need to turn off the tap and cancel the visas of those who are draining the public finances. Lord knows how my niblings will fare in the housing market when they leave school!
P.S. And I see that Hunt is going to substantially increase my taxes, to pay for the energy ‘benefit’ he is now giving me. I sit here in my comfy home, warm, having reduced my gas usage by 85%!!! Perhaps his predecessors could have just cut my tax in the first place. I am a Conservative Party member who now hates the party.
November 14, 2022
I refer you to my final post on Sir John’s Remembrance blog yesterday: Kipling’s poem, called The Beginnings, which is also known as “When the English began to hate.”
“It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late
With long arrears to make good,
When the English began to hate.”
You can find the rest online.
November 14, 2022
As a Conservative Party member, did you get to choose your parliamentary candidate from one of your own, or were you given your candidate – someone with perhaps a PPE Oxon and who has worked in Central Office on policy and now wants to further their political career, but up till then no connection with your area?
It’s Conservative Campaign Headquarters you need to deal with. They thought that by selecting Conservatives pretending to be socialists they might gain more votes. Instead they have promoted socialists pretending to be Conservatives.
November 14, 2022
@Dave Andrews +1 agree at every level
In a nutshell you illustrate how corrupt the UK Political system is. Candidates are not chosen from the people they wish to represent, but are chosen by what is essentially a āgang leaderā for their loyalty to that leader.
While technically it is possible to challenge this now status quo, any challenger has to overcome the money mountain the political groupings of Westminster essentially steel from the Taxpayer to fund themselves.
November 14, 2022
Sea -Warrior
The Conservatives appear to have lost their soul many years ago, afraid Mts Thatcher was the last true Conservative Prime Minister who believed people should choose how to spend their own money, unfortunately she eventually lost the plot in her last 18months due to being surrounded by weak people, with leftish/socialist views. (I exclude our host)
Now little difference between Conservative, Labour, or the LibDums.
Boris only got in because the majority of people were terrified of getting ultra Socialist Corbyn, and the fact that he promised an end to the Brexit farce/political opposition in Parliament.
November 14, 2022
@Berkshire Alan +1
November 14, 2022
I think Boris recognised that the circumstances had changed from the 2019 election. He didn’t have Corbyn or Brexit (May’s fiasco) to play to – there was also a potential Ā£10M payday for him to consider. His time had passed.
Donald Trump would be well advised to see the same thing and step aside for Desantis.
November 14, 2022
Increasing the demographic diversity of these islands is the only game in town. Systemic collapse is a mere irritation.
Maybe our esteemed and his colleagues should expose the Marxist scam that uses identity and culture as a weapon of national destruction
November 14, 2022
So we have another huge payment to France and a new signed deal to stop the migrants. It clearly will not work. The only real solution is to withdraw from the ECHR, deal with the law & make it very clear that anyone coming to the UK will be kept securely somewhere remote until they are returned. Also that they will never be allowed to stay if they entered illegally. Only then it will stop. The Home office web site even spells out that they will get given hotel rooms, food and Ā£40 per week to spend.
Surprising they did not add they can also shoplift with impunity in the UK (up to about Ā£100 per incident) as the police advertise that they never prosecute this anyway.
November 14, 2022
Danegeld.
The Tories have made friends with just about everyone except those who might vote for them.
November 14, 2022
Lifelogic
Yup, the pull factors still all in place.
Will they never learn ?
November 14, 2022
I’m watching Braverman talking about this on GB News, and wondering if she has gone ‘native’. Chuntering on about ‘criminal gangs’ with no suggestion of taking measures to reduce the draw factors or changing the laws used by the Open Borders nutters. The Government has almost achieved its objective of getting through another year of increased illegal immigration without doing anything.
November 16, 2022
There is an obvious hidden hand with undisclosed arrangements going on a under the table. Follow the actions and its obvious the collusion is top-level driven.
November 14, 2022
@Lifelogic
The Macron project is to agitate the UK for not accepting the rule from Overlords in the EU Commission. So he will take the money have a good laugh and keep controlling the UK
November 14, 2022
Yet, Maurice Snelling, from Staffordshire, has been jailed for six months after he sold mince pies and wine during lockdown, mistakenly thinking he was in tier 2 when he was just over the border in tier 3. This is a travesty of justice.
November 14, 2022
Concur – his real crime is that he didn’t claim he was an MP
November 14, 2022
He knew what Tier he was in, but banged up for selling mince pies! MADNESS — – all those Downing St people only got a very affordable Ā£1000 fine if they were caught partying. Some justice eh?
Six days I could swallow – but the ER nutters stopping tens of thousands of people moving on roads – only got suspended jokes of a sentence.
November 15, 2022
MT – Congleton is in Cheshire CW12, which was in Tier 2, yet his club was considered Staffordshire Tier 3. We are talking a border here on a ridiculous lockdown that Starmer and Rayner broke, and Shaun Bailey and his crew, they all got off with a light touch and Starmers crew covered up who was there. “Thomas Sherrington, mitigating, said: “My client is a man who is 72 and for many years ran a successful business and genuinely believed that the premises fell into Cheshire.”
I hope the residents who reported him are happy that he has been imprisoned. PRISON, not community service and a fine! Mr Sherrington added that since the proceedings started his client’s health had declined and he had suffered multiple heart attacks. He also lost his licence to serve alcohol revoked. This is just another punishment on top of Prison.
I don’t know this man or his club or anything more than what I’ve read, but it makes me feel sick. He had his bins emptied by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council so should have know it was Staffordshire not Cheshire, even though his address says Cheshire, I wonder if his premises were in Cheshire East Council area?
November 14, 2022
LL: More payments to France? ….the first sign of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.
November 14, 2022
LL
Ā£40 a week to spend.
That’s not spent here is sent back home to the family.
November 14, 2022
The right place to get the houses built are:
Albania
the Middle East
Africa
Because the British population doesn’t need excessive new housing. It’s “needed” for the millions of 3rd worlders being imported.
Britain’s green and pleasant land is being concreted over to provide housing for immigrants, many of whom make no real contribution to this country. They have their hand out from the minute they arrive.
November 14, 2022
Donna, I have just been reading about a recent Unicef report on occupants of Jordan’s refugee camps. A 43yr old Syrian woman was quoted as saying that she already has NINE children, five of them born in the camp, but her husband (also a camp occupant) objected to her undertaking any form of birth control as HE wishes to have lots of children. Promoting the use of birth control is apparently quite a problem due to obvious cultural and religious beliefs.
November 14, 2022
That horse has bolted. The days of the 1970s when white British males went on strike for their workers’ rights are history. Then came the influx of Lithuanian/Poles/Letts in the 2000s. Now it is Romanians, Albanians and various people from Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.
The best thing is to get used to it. I taught some of the immigrants English (pro bono) and was very richly rewarded for my troubles. Covid ended that I am afraid. But I can see that a lot of immigrants put us lazy Brits to shame. (Is it 5 million people on Universal Credit?)
PS It would help if our birth rate went up a bit too. At the moment it is very low.
November 14, 2022
Birth rates are falling around the world but I’ve noted an interesting change here. It used to be that you got married, had children and (maybe) eventually brought a house together. Nowadays, you buy a house, have a baby and then think about whether you are “committed” enough to get married.
More seriously, young couples both need to work these daysjust to afford housing (rented or mortgaged) so it’s not surprising that couples are having children later in life – and perhaps leaving it too late as a result. Failed pregnancies and pre-term babies seem more common these days than I remember from my ‘youff’. My working theory is that older Mums, working till the last minute and with lots of other ‘pressures’ these days are having more problems. Couple that to the ongoing costs (e.g. child care) after the child actually arrives, driving further disincentives to have kids.
So it’s a Catch 22. Too many (imported) people, too little affordable housing, encouraging older (working) Mums that results in fewer (home grown) kids…which then equals (in political minds) the need to import more people to combat our population decline… Simples!!
November 14, 2022
Donna
Another makes my day entry.
Thank you.
November 14, 2022
The UK is increasingly overpopulated. Attracting higher numbers each year causes endless need for building and overcrowded homes. Many outsiders risk criminal charges and endanger life entering the UK at sea without papers.
New entrants from France can be managed efficiently via the Channel Tunnel. Construct a dedicated non-passport channel at the Calais entrance. Those without a valid passport can be safely escorted to wait their turn there at the back of the queue, free of charge: or go elsewhere.
November 14, 2022
Our government statistics show that just 37,000 new house where completed in 2021, but we had over 100,000+ legal migration & students and 50,000+ illegal economic migrants and over-stayers https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-homes-england-2021-22-housebuilding-statistics-revealed
ARE WE MAD
November 14, 2022
Update = There were 1,311,731 visas granted in 2021
33% for student, 31% to visit, 18% to work, 3% for family, 14% for other reasons
Thatās 1.3 MILLION that have to sleep somewhere and use public resources
November 14, 2022
I am so angry about this.
Over 900 migrants arrived over the Channel on Saturday, hitting the target of 40,000 this year, and nothing is done. If the Government says āwe cant do anythingā, I have to ask, what is the point of having a Government?
Many others will, doubtless, be asking the same thing.
November 14, 2022
Why do they bother with checks at the airports or on the ferries with these numbers arriving every day?
November 14, 2022
972 Saturday & another 853 yesterday, Sunday C G. How is 1500 capacity Manston looking now ? Has it become “illegal” again over the last 2 days. How’s the legal action to the last overspill doing ? 1825 arrivals in two days and 48 boats. Surge tactics continue each and every time the weather breaks and not a thing can be done.
November 14, 2022
Just France’s why of asking for more money
November 14, 2022
Diane
Do not worry Diane we are going to put 100 more French policemen on the beach (by the middle of next year) at an additional cost of an extra Ā£8 million on top of what we are already paying.
I guess it will be a night shift only, otherwise it will be 30 policemen for 24 hours cover in 3 shifts.
All those extra people to cover at a minimum, 100 miles of coastline.
One policeman per mile assuming night shift only !!!!!!
Those in charge really do think this will be a sensible solution !!!!
Will make a massive difference. !!!!!!!
They really do !!!!!!!!
So they actually think, Problem solved ?
Politicians do not have a clue about the scale of the problem, the logistics required to stop it ,or human nature with regards to the pull factors do they.
November 14, 2022
And doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result is pure madness ā¦.so why do we continue to pay the French expecting them to stop the illegalās
November 14, 2022
Sir John
You are not alone in questioning the evangelical way that those that are in Government put credence on certain ābodiesā
In the Telegraph on Saturday an item from Matthew Lynn lays out the hard figures that demonstrate the failures this Government appears to be ordered to take as Gospel.
āWe face punishing tax rises to placate a body no one voted for”
“To satisfy our fiscal watchdog, Jeremy Hunt is about to launch more raids than the SAS”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/12/tax-rises-loom-obr-forecasts-have-wrong-years/
“The OBR to get around their failures then say āof course, the OBR itself is quick to point out that its predictions should not be taken as gospel. āBut that is nonetheless how they are taken by the markets. ”
“An impartial body, especially one with such important sounding words as āBudgetā and āResponsibilityā in its title (who would be arguing for Budget Irresponsibility?), gives the impression that it might finally bring some discipline and order to a financial system that seems to have run out of control.Ā ”
“The second is that, even after we voted for Brexit, we still to some degree hanker after the rule of the unelected technocrats. We no longer entirely trust the political class, or the civil servants who advise them (and after the craziness of the last few weeks it is not hard to see why. ”
The figures show that since its inception the OBR has failed, and failed big time and we are paying not only for their bad advice directly but in our daily lives. People talk of āblack holesā but most of us know the big āblack holeā is the Government pumping OUR money into numerous bodies that are not accountable and they themselves donāt even appear to have a record of where our money has gone.
Reply Yes I am glad m6 challenging the accuracy of OBR forecasts in recent years has attracted others to analyse their record. There are a good group of economists now who think it wrong to base a budget/autumn statement judgement on an OBR deficit forecast for 3 or 5 years time when no one can reliably produce a realistic forecast that far out
November 14, 2022
Sir John
The words ‘Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill’ are absolute Tosh. Central Government is still playing at being the Countries Local Council. They cannot remotely create Rules Regulations that will mean the same and have the same effect on needs of every local community. Micro management from afar is pure bonkers, expensive and a waste of taxpayers money and Government is notorious at doing that.
Free the people and their communities from all this bonkers Metro Left thinking and they will thrive. Or another way would be for Government to treat everyone with respect and treat them equally. People near the need have 100% better ways to achieve than the deranged that now have control. It is only the extreme Socialist thinking Left as found in London and this Government that believes that equality is doing and believing what is dictated by them and only them at their centre. Government is excluding other points of view and playing the āCancel Cardā. To thrive no one, that is no one needs all this bonkers micro management that has a one size fit all theme. Or in essence we need a proper Conservative Party not this pseudo Con Party
November 14, 2022
Ian B
I think you will find that your opening sentence is in the bible of the WEF.
Too many leaders and politicians are on its books. Our Chancellor is among them.
November 14, 2022
UN, WEF Davos, European Political Community, G7, Cop27, G20, Bilderberg Group ā¦take your pick (local democracy way down on the list)
November 14, 2022
Sir John, Its absurd that planning is allowed in areas short of water which is exactly what is happening. Why are not finite natural resources taken into account when permission given for vast new estates?
November 14, 2022
@Frances Truscott All planing done centrally is a Political Project, without concerns of resources/infrastructure matching the need.
November 14, 2022
Well we are not really short of water just short of storage system. Grey water systems for loo flushing etc. could save loads of water too where needed.
November 14, 2022
Why did I move to this area in 1968?
Well for the housing and the work. Many top companies had HQs in Bracknell when it had a Development Corporation. It was, then, a far better place to live compared to Canning Town.
People want to live in an area with good houses, good jobs, good schools and a nice environment. People do not want to live in run down areas where there is no work nor any nice housing. Until industry is encouraged to go to northern former industrial areas and to poorer boroughs in the SW, people won’t go there.
The government must also resist the temptation to fill these areas with public sector jobs. We need less state.
Personally, with Chancellor Hunt about to tax and tax again businesses, I can’t see that business will feel confident to invest in these areas.
I hate to say it but, at the moment, our country looks finished and I would advise youngsters to get skills and emigrate to one of our commonwealth nations.
November 14, 2022
@Cliff. Wokingham. Not you, but, Wokingham the place was the project to create tomorrows slums today. Once the had the most affordable local taxes in the UK while ensuring top notch services. Now run by the LibDems and heading for further decline.
November 14, 2022
I think you’re quite right, Cliff. In fact the government has recently published its plans to set up investment zones in areas outside the South-East/South of the Thames.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-growth-plan-2022-factsheet-on-investment-zones/the-growth-plan-2022-investment-zones-factsheet
They have got as far as signing up three dozen LAs. The tax breaks look quite generous, including 100% business rates relief on newly occupied and expanded premises, and a zero rate for employer NI contributions on new employee earnings up to Ā£50,270 per year.
This was before Sunak became prime minister, so let’s see if he plans to go ahead with this. Let’s hope so.
Sir John may already have written about the plan. If so, he won’t have been at all surprised to see that on the government web site the important question about the investment zones ‘When will they be set up?’ is not actually answered!
November 14, 2022
You should ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities where theyāre going to house the 972 illegal economic immigrants that crossed the channel yesterday in small boats
November 14, 2022
I’d quite like to see them moved into Buck Palace; Windsor Castle; Sandringham; Balmoral; Highgrove etc
I suspect there would be “action that day.”
November 14, 2022
“Don’t get ill and don’t get injured.” is the advice from my nurse friend in response to the mass house building in my area which has been done without shred of thought towards increasing local infrastructure and resources.
In the 12 years of Conservative rule I’d say we have witnessed a fall in standard of living of around 30%. They cut the police service while importing problem families into this once peaceful area.
Our Tory MP must go.
All Tory MPs must go.
November 14, 2022
@No Longer Anonymous There are some good if not great Guys in the Conservative Party ā Our Host. But they are a dying breed as the Party selectors only recruit real Socialist, as their mentality will be acceptable and compliant to the extreme left of the Party in the form of Boris/Rishi/Hunt. As ā@Dave Andrewsā has already said here to day constituents donāt choose their representatives they are forced on them
November 14, 2022
Ian B
Very well said. Sad but true
November 14, 2022
This government and Parliament is worthless. Time for a new right of centre party. What few principled MPs remain should abandon this moribund Consevative party which will be annihilated at the next election (if we are allowed to have one).
November 14, 2022
@Brian Tomkinson – Time we had a Government that believed in the UK, believed in what makes it Great – ‘the people’ and above all trusted the People.
November 14, 2022
Minister of State: ‘Not another irritatingly concise parliamentary question from John Redwood. Doesn’t he have anything better to do than try and represent the views of his constituents and the vast majority of voters? Sir Humphrey, please arrange a response to this latest question. I know it’s internal policy to have first drafts completed by our new graduates with no experience of government or of commerce. This time, please make sure the final version for me to sign off on is more vague than the previous time – which, if you remember, inadvertently very nearly committed us to doing something the electorate might actually want’.
November 14, 2022
Excellent!!!
November 14, 2022
Sunak has now signed the latest transfer of Ā£millions for Macron which still WON’T stop the boats.
He obviously never has read Kipling. Not only does he not know The Beginnings (when the English Began to Hate), he also doesn’t know The Danegeld:
IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: ā
“We invaded you last night ā we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: ā
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: —
“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!”
This nation is lost. Or to be more accurate, this nation has been betrayed and given away by the British Establishment.
November 14, 2022
+1
November 14, 2022
Excellent
November 14, 2022
Donna
Brilliant
November 14, 2022
Ā£63 million is a waste of money if weāre still members of the ECHRs
November 14, 2022
Indeed, we should be paying the French nothing at all unless they accept the return of all the people who arrive in Kent. That would kill the movement. Anything less than that is just another pointless gimmick.
November 14, 2022
How can housing, services and infrastructure be discussed without mentioning the real cause of our problems, massive immigration?
We wouldnāt have a housing shortage or a need for levelling up if we didnāt have massive immigration, both legal and illegal.
If massive third world immigration continues as planned then we can expect our housing shortage will be āsolvedā by our cities being surrounded by favelas, each dominated by a specific community.
November 14, 2022
O R
Get on line and read about the problems the Swedish people are experiencing.
They are getting all our problems and their politicians will not repeal the laws the immigrants lawyers hide behind.
November 14, 2022
Central planning , with the imposition of badly thought out national objectives has never worked.
Rather than keep on insisting that towns are required to house more and more people, it is time HMG took responsibility for the disaster they have created, allowing so many people into the UK.
Each year we get enough ‘new blood’ to fill whole cities…. So, why doesn’t HMG build new cities for those that come – There is plenty of land where new cities could be established, (Scotland is almost empty), even if the infrastructure may be lacking.
November 14, 2022
Mary M, Shirley M & Donna :
Parliament is no longer in control of our laws and policies. It is the civil service, the judiciary (we now have the rule of lawyers not the rule of law), the MSM and the police who enforce decisions made elsewhere.
This is why the Conservative Party despite an 80 seat majority are unable to implement their manifesto pledges, as well as being led by those who have no intention of implementing them.
So the problem is that even if Reform is voted in with a majority they will not have the power to govern. We have already seen this in action in the UK and elsewhere.
November 14, 2022
@Original Richard +1 And those Bodies are still aligning with the EU in hope of a greater dictatorship.
November 14, 2022
Yours is the message of despair. āEvery message of despair is the statement of a situation from which everybody must freely try to find a way out.ā
See my analogy of the Uni-Party stool above. We must break the Establishment’s grip. You cannot change someone else’s behaviour (if they don’t want to). You can only change your own.
If people don’t change their voting behaviour …. they will not change the behaviour of the Uni-Party.
November 14, 2022
Donna :
I do despair. Our democracy is being trashed in front of our very eyes.
Recently watching video clips of senior Government Ministers, including PMs, gives me the impression of watching a hostage reading a script prepared by the abductors.
I certainly will be changing my voting behaviour even if I have to spoil my ballot paper because only the Uni-Party candidates as you describe them are listed.
November 14, 2022
So true, Donna. Sadly, millions will continue voting for the ‘least worst’. That incentivises no one to do better, least of all the winning ‘least worst’ party.
November 14, 2022
Your aim is to prevent areas “facing shortages of services and infrastructure from rapid development.”
England and Wales are very unbalanced, there are vast differences in class sizes, patients per f/t equiv. GP, Patients per hospital, nursing shortages per region. https://www.nationalworld.com/health/englands-busiest-gps-nhs-figures-show-huge-variation-in-patient-numbers-per-doctor-3874225
“On average, across England, there are 1,719 patients for every full-time-equivalent GP. But patient-to-GP ratios vary hugely across the country, from just 89 patients per full-time GP at a surgery based in a residential home in Balham, London, to 40,875 at a practice in Stratford, London….The Department of Health and Social Care said there is no government recommendation for the number of patients each GP should have, as this would be affected by many different factors.”
I worry that poorer areas will be seen mainly by nurses, and important conditions can then be missed, I wonder if more affluent areas will be seen by GPs. In some cases, nurses are actually more experienced; we have a superb phlebotomist now; she has made such an improvement locally; there is a women’s clinic in the evening as women generally need more medical checkups because child creation plays havoc with their bodies. You’re often seen only by midwives now not GPs during pregnancy and birth and in the clinics after having the child.
November 14, 2022
Sir John
Surely you werenāt expecting an honest straightforward answer. Its hard not to get into name calling but your party the Conservative Party has been hijacked by extreme left-wing zealots. No longer about listening and hearing, but spouting ‘my way’ platitudes.
The Department for Levelling Up? Madnessā¦ Here we are with the highest taxes in 70 years and we have a Government create non-entity departments to support a jingoistic phrase that doesnāt mean a thing to anyone.
Then we have the PM and Chancellor saying taxes have to go up even more to pay for this never ending waste. There are the phrases of ācost cuttingā used, but read between the lines it doesnāt mean trimming the State to match income it just means money wont go where it is needed. To the rest of us what we want to see is an account of all the money raked in in the last few years and have the serious question posed did the Taxpayer get the best- f-the-best in return for that expenditure.
If any entity in receipt of Taxpayer money cant account for every hard earned penny and show productive value for expenditure lets use another phrase āde-fund themā and mean it. No entity at any level should be receiving taxpayer money, were they aren’t held fully accountable to the taxpayer.
Its the Governments own accounts that need holding to account with aggressive auditing before any new money grabs. Their(Government) relied on support and mentors the OBR and BofE, have time and time again demonstrated their abstract failure. Get rid, change the management of the Treasury and get them out of Politics and fulfilling their function to the Taxpayer.
November 14, 2022
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bosses-demand-immigration-reform-kgp7lpjw0
“Bosses demand immigration reform”
“The CBI has told the government that it risks another decade without growth if ministers do not pursue contentious reforms to immigration and planning policy to kick-start the economy.”
“Tony Danker, its director-general, said: āWe need many more pro-growth policies for our economy if weāre to avoid a decade of no growth. A desperate lack of workers is inflating wages and stopping firms growing.”
This is the same CBI that wants us to rejoin the EU Single Market and Customs Union – which Theresa May was prepared to give them – and in due course rejoin the EU and adopt the euro.
November 14, 2022
@Denis Cooper
āBosses demand immigration reformā – this is because they donāt want to pay a fair wage.
Just because the CBI is the acronym for the Confederation of British Industry, doesnāt make it British, British Airways isnāt what we mean by British either, in the sameway ad British Columbia is not British. The CBI is nowadays is principally an organisation for EU Companies that have some remote British connection.
British or UK Companies left in droves due the organisation anti British stance and for a preference to be ruled by the same unelected bureaucracy as in their Home Countries.
Come to that The Times isnāt British either hence its predominant stance on being anti UK
November 14, 2022
Ian B :
You are correct. The CBI refuses to say how it is funded and who are its members.
Probably EU companies but could also be Chinese.
November 14, 2022
Richard Tice nailed Lord Wolfson (CEO of Next) on his Sunday Show on Talk Radio. Wolfson is complaining about not being able to get retail and warehouse staff and is demanding visas be granted to low-skilled/low-wage migrants.
Turns out Next is paying as little as Ā£6.80 an hour (or thereabouts) for some staff. These must be under 21s who get the lower level minimum wage.
As Tice said, if you paid a decent wage, you’d get people applying for those jobs. Instead Wolfson wants to pay peanuts to immigrants and load their social costs onto British taxpayers.
November 14, 2022
I am glad my shoulders are not broad. Although the one tax I cannot avoid – Council Tax – is about to be massively increased again. Of course, there is no chance of wasteful spending being cut and the money used for social care. Why should they. Thereās no rioting yet.
November 14, 2022
I reside in South Oxfordshire where the current housing and traffic volume is an absolute nightmare . Local surgeries are closed to new applicants , extra school building places have been turned down , the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford has an enormous waiting time . You would think that any further housing would not be credible . No , more housing is being discussed and planned . Where is the common sense in all this mayhem ?; I blame our MP and Central and Local Government bodies ; they are completely out of touch with reality .
November 14, 2022
Skimming through this summary of the new measures agreed with the French:
https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-strikes-deal-france-channel-migrants-rishi-sunak-emmanuel-macron-suella-braverman-gerald-darmanin/
I wonder whether they will make much difference, especially compared to unilaterally changing our law to allow people to apply for UK asylum in France and other countries further back along the migration paths.
For as long as āPeople must be physically present in the UK to claim asylum”:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/11/03/can-a-government-minister-do-things-the-elite-dislike/#comment-1352469
the people traffickers will have a ready and lucrative market for their services.
November 14, 2022
The big new immigration master plan ā give the French an extra Ā£8 million ā¦thatās some plan
November 14, 2022
The written question-and-answer process is clearly designed to allow ministers to dodge scrutiny. They can produce a non-answer and there’s no follow-up, only the possibility of asking another fresh question.
If the same question is asked again, possibly re-worded, they can simply refer to their previous answer (pretending not to notice the clarification or change of emphasis). The expectation is that the questioner will eventually give up. That seems to be largely how it’s panning out, looking at these posts.
If an MP of the ruling party can’t get answers to basic questions, what hope is there for anyone else? This process is not fit for purpose (not for teh purpose of scrutiny, but perhaps superbly fit for the purpose of avoiding scrutiny).
November 14, 2022
There are a number of problems around the question as to why demand is out of sync with supply.
Government has allowed population to explode beyond the county’s capacity, such that it diminishes the quality of life to an intolerable level. Think Pavlov’s dogs.
Land with permission to build is largely controlled by the large building companies such that their grip has become a very unhealthy cartel. They drip feed the market for the sole purpose of maintaining profit levels. I would suspect that they are very heavy lobbyists.
The way we build homes is archaic, leading to slow delivery of poor quality low specification offerings at inflated prices. A multitude of immobile mobile homes in trailer parks would provide first time buyers with an affordable start, but try getting that round the nimby local council in Nether Sodbury. (Apologies if such a place exists).
We need the same mind set and drive that gave us the Pre-Fab and Garden Towns after WW2. However, most of all we need to remove the at least 2,000,000 illegals who are depressing our quality of life.
The way we supply money for the the purpose of home buying would stand a long hard entrepreneurial look to provide a long term far more stable market place. I am far from impressed with the way the financial industry operates, but government is probably in hock to them too so don’t hold your breath. I only ever got paid as a percentage of profit created, the financial industry expects payment up front just for turning up.
November 14, 2022
“new housing investment in areas already facing shortages of services and infrastructure from rapid development.”
Wouldn’t all areas claim this, John? Which area has spare capacity for schools, doctors, and roads?
The councils with their 3000 new homes built in the last 10 years haven’t spent in the local area for those ten years, so with all these extra rates cumulatively accruing with younger, fitter people buying them, what is soaking up all the extra money so the Councils still can’t cope? There are less schools now than there were ten years ago, one high school closed down and a couple of primary schools have closed and are now housing estates so if anything schooling costs dropped. There are no more doctors. No new roads where all the homes have been built. Our planting and verge management has decreased. I don’t see any police officers on the beat, so I don’t know if numbers have increased or not locally. It seems that building is a win-win for increasing local tax take.
November 14, 2022
a-tracy
If your area is anything like mine our local Tory councillor informed me when complaining about the real lack of services. I had to understand that nearly 80% of the outgoings are related to care and social services. Nothing can be done as it is central government policy.
Words failed me.
November 15, 2022
You made me curious; what we spend each year should be the first main button on the Council website. So that people value what they are providing and understand the costs. I expected to go on to the website and see a pie chart breakdown of what they spend on each service area. Just to see what % went on the main costs of care and social services. Not easy to find? I drilled down to find a council-tax-budget-information.
Only a quarter of the council spending is from Council Tax paid by residents, 7.7% business rates,
[other council tax is going to the Fire Authority, Police, Town Councils.]
17% on Adult Social Care & Health
7.5% on Children & Families
7% on Community Environment & Economy
4.6% on Corporate Services
2.4% Capital Fiancing
So it doesn’t seem to be 80% on Care & Social Services at first glance.
November 14, 2022
To ensure that (road) infrastructure is adequate for the new plus existing houses in an area, you need to create a traffic model and see if any congestion spots are likely. Is this usually done? I’m afraid not.
November 15, 2022
Yes, they create traffic models. But (when I worked in that sector) predicted traffic congestion, under the planning rules brought in by Cameron/Clegg, was not considered a sufficient justification to stop the development from going ahead.
November 15, 2022
Quite. Sir John may know about a proposal to build 250 more houses at the end of Maidensfield – a 4 pronged road off Watmore Lane, Winnersh. A field is identified to be used, but access will only be along Maidensfield – no other access/egress! It only just passes width requirements, and the road it joins (Watmore) has a primary school at each end with a fixed road division between the schools. Southern end has access to A329, northern end to roads that are already overloaded and parked on during the day. It seems Wokingham DC will not allow the proposed developer to have access a second way at the southern end.
Local residents are protesting to the developer that there are a whole host of reasons to refuse it.
We will watch with interest.
November 14, 2022
Lord Willett has got it about right in that the party has got to appeal to the 18 – 30 year old voter who have become the rental generation with not a hope in hell of getting on the housing ladder.
They are only interested in themselves and it has been made too easy to get involved in politics by using postal voting. Blair knew what he was doing when he championed it all those years ago. The mentality of that age group is socialism, so as in America the colour of the political maps are going to change dramatically.
I personally think that unless you have a specific recognised reason for using a postal ballot disability, hospitalised, working abroad serving in the forces the only vote that counts is the ones you actually turn up and place in the the ballot box. There needs to be a big think about the whole political selection process. Central Office is past its sell by date as is the selection criteria coupled with the apathy of the electorate bought about by the dire performance of the last 25 years of Parliament.
November 14, 2022
The government has learnt nothing about throwing millions at the French which has had no impact on the invaders reaching our beaches.
There is no real incentive and we never know how hard the French are working to get results and the numbers turned back.
Do it another way.
Pay a bounty to the French on the actual numbers not reaching our beaches. Gives them an incentive to turn them back in French waters. But more importantly hit the traffickers and the dingy suppliers. The French could round them up put them on coaches and dump them on on the Mediterranean Coast
With the 42K this year that relates to if stopped Ā£1500 per invaders. There therefore is an incentive for the French to stamp the invaders traffickers out of existance and also for French boats to turn them back to their beaches before they get to English waters. The more they stop the more they get. Rocket science this problem it is not. All that is required is belief and determination on both sides of the channel.