Welcome to a Conservative Party Conference special edition of this newsletter, as the Centre for Policy Studies is in Birmingham, running a packed programme of events, contributing to the intellectual debate and trying to catch a glimpse of Jeremy Clarkson.
For those unable to attend, you can catch our panels and interviews on the CPS YouTube channel – as well as through CapX. Today, I wrote up a lively conversation with Katie Lam, now Shadow Housing Secretary, in which she expressed her hatred for stamp duty and the Renters’ Rights Act, but was surprisingly optimistic about taming Nimbyism.
This year’s conference is very much a celebration of the power of ideas, and at its centre is a new statement of Conservative principles, ‘The Right Way’, modelled on a paper drafted 50 years ago by the CPS’s co-founder Keith Joseph.
Today, Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith has set out what those reaffirmed principles mean for the party’s economic plans. He offered another callback to the Thatcher era, promising to cut a tax every Budget just as Nigel Lawson did. His first target? The Extended Producer Responsibility levy. If Andy Burnham wants to go back to the 1970s, the Tories’ new message is clear: they are offering the 1980s instead.
Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.
Marc Sidwell
Editor, CapX
Today’s Takes
Fresh thinking from CapX
Katie Lam: blame broken planning for Nimbys
Marc Sidwell
‘Lam blamed Nimbyism on a dysfunctional planning system, arguing that the right reforms, allowing people to build good homes in the places people want to live, wouldn’t face the same challenges.’
Shadow Housing Secretary Katie Lam joined Robert Colvile for an in conversation event during the Conservative Party Conference. She was blunt about the UK’s housing crisis, with attacks on stamp duty and the Renters Rights Act. The Conservatives plan to slash regulation and get rid of two quangos that slow construction. Will they tackle our broken planning system as well? Read More
Don’t swap Britain’s growth for EU food rules
Shanker Singham
‘The test of a trade agreement is what it does to prosperity across the economy.’
In November, the UK will meet with the EU to discuss dynamic alignment proposals on agrifood and other trade areas. There is a case for improving our relationship with the EU, but not at the expense of our wider prosperity. The UK needs to ensure that we avoid simply rule taking from the EU. New Zealand shows that a different approach is available without wholesale adoption of EU laws. Read More
The wiring diagram behind Thatcher’s revolution
Eliot Wilson
‘The Stepping Stones report drew on a larger wiring diagram Hoskyns had sketched in 1974 to show the way in which both problems and solutions were intimately interconnected and had to be understood as a whole.’
Andy Burnham is promising to rewire the British state. He could learn a thing or two from Margaret Thatcher, who as Prime Minister drew on a ‘wiring diagram’ created by John Hoskyns. The diagram, and ‘Stepping Stones’, a report that followed in 1977, provided a map for leading Britain’s economy back onto the right path. Read More
Stat of the Day
Best of the Web
The Environment Agency must go
Ross Clark, The Spectator
‘The pendulum has swung too far towards conservation and too far away from protecting homes and property.’
Kemi Badenoch has proposed scrapping the Environment Agency and Natural England. It is part of a larger package, which the Tories claim will reduce the cost of building a new home by £50,000. Whether the figures are right or not, the Environment Agency is beyond saving. The only question is what should replace it. Read More
Housing needs help to build, not Help to Buy
Simon French, The Times
‘Let us not get too dewy-eyed about a policy that tries to plaster over housing policy failure.’
The Government has announced a new version of the coalition’s 2013 Help to Buy policy. But financing is no longer the main issue. UK lenders are in rude health. The current market failure is the viability of building new homes in the UK. Labour are addressing a supply-side problem with a demand-side solution. Read More
Did the 40-hour week lose France the war?
The Capitalist: Helen Whately – get the young back to work
And if you want more...
– Conservatives need to care about liberty (ConservativeHome)
– What’s your area’s benefits bill? (Taxpayers’ Alliance)
– A guide to the Birmingham Tapestry (X)
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There is nothing wrong with the planning system. There are 1.5 million homes already approved for construction. There are pipelines for outline approval of nearly 2 million.
The problem is NOT NIMBYS and it’s time this lie was put to bed. Developers profits are rheproblem not NIMBYS.