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What have we learnt from this week’s Queen’s Speech?

Draft election manifesto? PR stunt? Diversionary tactic? However you regard the Queen’s Speech published earlier this week it nonetheless offers an important insight into the aspirations of a Boris Johnson government in the post-Brexit era.

At first glance, perhaps the most notable issue for the development sector is the absence of any direct legislation or other proposals for planning or housing. In many ways a manifesto ahead of a likely General Election rather than a programme of government, it is unsurprising that investment in the NHS, tackling crime and policing (all easy vote winners) took centre stage, alongside a headline-grabbing “momentous” new Environment Bill. No reference, however, to “fixing the dysfunctional housing market” that featured in Boris’ predecessor’s Queen’s Speech in 2017.

Is the housing market therefore fixed? 

Far from it, but as has been seen in local politics over the course of 2019, promoting the housing agenda has proved a double edged sword for the Conservatives. In May this year housing was (along with Brexit) seen as the underlying explanation for Conservative losses in local elections which saw senior political figures unseated, and long held Conservative councils fall to opposition groups. How these new council administrations are grappling with the challenge of meeting housing need with restricting greenfield and Green Belt development remains to be seen. However, with at least one council postponing its Local Plan consultation to avoid a potential General Election in November, housing clearly remains a highly contentious political issue.

Outside of the Queen’s Speech itself, the new ministerial team at MHCLG has already offered some indication of its approach to housing and planning. Esther McVey’s public comments on greenfield and Green Belt development, her involvement in the Broxtowe Local Plan, and Secretary of State Robert Jenrick’s recent holding direction on the South Oxfordshire Local Plan, may indicate a more interventionist (and protectionist?) approach to planning. And whilst there has been little mention of the Thames Gateway and Oxford Cambridge Arc growth areas in recent months, both the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine have received specific mention in last month’s Spending Review and the briefing that accompanied the Queen’s Speech.

Other notable issues for the development sector in the Queen’s Speech this week included:

  • Enshrining environmental principles in law “for the first time” through a new Environment Bill to establish a comprehensive framework for legally-binding targets, a long term plan to deliver environmental improvements and create a new Office for Environmental Protection. A key element of the bill will introduce mandatory biodiversity protections into the planning system, “ensuring new houses aren’t built at the expense of nature”.
  • A commitment to bringing forward a National Infrastructure Strategy setting out long-term ambitions across all areas of economic infrastructure including transport, local growth, decarbonisation, digital infrastructure, infrastructure finance and delivery. Key aims of this strategy will be to help close the productivity gap between London and the rest of the country, and to support the UK’s pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
  • A commitment to a White Paper on devolution, with the offer of enhanced devolution across England, levelling up the powers between Mayoral Combined Authorities, increasing the number of mayors and implementing more devolution deals.

The big question remains how much of the agenda set out by Boris Johnson this week will make it onto the statute books in the post-Brexit parliament. However, with the next local elections in May 2020 including a number of high profile mayoral contests in Bristol, Liverpool, Salford and London, as well as in the combined authority areas of West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and Tees Valley, the current political flux looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.

For more information please contact Phil Brogan.

17 October 2019