Without the planning system we would be living in palaces

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-36445848

With money this man saved not paying for government building licenses he built a mock-Tudor palace.

Reply 1

ODES_PDES

This is the exception and not the rule

Reply 2

Jebedee

It is unbelievable you have to get government permission to build on your own land.

Reply 3

RF_PineMarten

Original post by Jebedee

It is unbelievable you have to get government permission to build on your own land.

No, it is perfectly reasonable and the whole ****ing point of the planning system. Otherwise you'd have chaos from people building whatever the hell they wanted without regard for the environment or for their neighbours. If something like what that man built was allowed despite being illegal, it would open the floodgates for all sorts of terrible developments.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

Jebedee

Original post by RF_PineMarten

Okay but not everyone is hell bent on building the Taj Mahal in the countryside. You even need it for interior work too like turning a closet into a bedroom.

Reply 5

Observatory

Why should we not be a nation of Taj Mahals?

Are we a small people with small dreams?

Reply 6

2016_GCSE

A waste of limited resources if you ask me.

Having to tear it all down to rubble.

Reply 7

nulli tertius

Original post by RF_PineMarten

Lets look at an area that was built in living memory by ordinary people building what they liked, where they lived without planning control:- The Humberston Fitties.

http://www.coastmagazine.co.uk/content/village-sand

For many years now, it has been considered so important to our national heritage that it is a Conservation Area.

There is another plotlands development in Essex called Jaywick. It is the most deprived place in England.

What's the difference between the Fitties and Jaywick? The Council in Cleethorpes has always smiled fairly benignly on the Fitties. Clacton Council has always wanted to bulldoze Jaywick into the sea.

Reply 8

RF_PineMarten

Original post by Jebedee

Okay but not everyone is hell bent on building the Taj Mahal in the countryside. You even need it for interior work too like turning a closet into a bedroom.

Do you?

It appears internal alterations are often exempt from planning permission, except if you're in a listed building.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/33/internal_walls

Reply 9

fallen_acorns

Original post by RF_PineMarten

True, you need a planning system, it is absolutely essential..

The problem is the current one is far far to strict in many cases. Speaking as someone who is currently plot-hunting and looking around, its endlessly frustrating to see beautiful houses built on peices of land, which today could never happen...

It feels like at one point it was decided that as a country, we now must conserve our green spaces.. we must protect our neighborhoods, maintain our town boundaries, and keep our country great!

Problem is they decided this, but they didn't decide to stop a massive population boom that would require new housing! Ofcourse their are brown-field sites, and options, but they do not cover all locations and all required needs, and simply put there are so many cases where our planning system fails conventional logic, and denys people the right to build a house on land they own.. something which has been pretty fundimental to our humanity, the ability to provide housing for ourselves.

--

I can understand why though.. I know my local councillers and planning department heads pretty well.. also my local goverment, and why the hell would they want to disturb the current system? Many of them are wealthy, many have assets tied up in property.

For them, and the goverment as a whole its a win-win. They keep their towns/countryside beautiful.. great. and by doing so they restrict the supply of new houses, and keep their investments growing. Its just a perfect system. Rental prices boom, and everyone is happy.

Except our generation who have been born into system where for the first time, we are unlikely to own a house anytime on our 20s, will pay mortgages over 2x as high percentage wise as our parents, and rent for far longer.

--

We must have a planning system, but I cannot take the system seriously when I meet planning officials, see their beautiful countryside houses, that were built in a time of less regulation.. and then listen to them tell me how I want to ruin the countryside, when all I plan on doing is exactly what was done to build their precious house generations before. Its hypocrisy at its finest.

Reply 10

Jebedee

Original post by RF_PineMarten

How about a loft conversion?

Reply 11

Wōden

Original post by RF_PineMarten

I personally would reform planning to where an individual or family would be allowed to build a modest sized dwelling (no ridiculous mansions etc) on land they own without permission, with the stipulation that it must be lived in for 5 years by that same individual before it can be sold, so as to prevent big devolopers from abusing the system. I would also like to see individual builds incentivised over large scale housing developments.

It would give poorer people a real chance to get on the property ladder, it would create a more natural distribution of housing, ie houses would go where they are actually needed, not where some central bureaucracy thinks they need to go, and I think it would be better overall for the character of an area. The current system of allowing rich developers to just plonk thousands of hideous, identical, 'toy town' houses on the outskirts of towns is absolutely destroying the unique character and soul of many of our towns and cities, in my opinion.

Reply 12

username1799249

Original post by Observatory

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-36445848

With money this man saved not paying for government building licenses he built a mock-Tudor palace.

The cost of a house is reflected in the price of land with planning permission not in the bricks and motar. I would love to see planning relaxed but within reason.