You have got to feel a little sorry for the housing team at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Not only do they belong to the ministry with just about the dullest name in history, they also preside over the national housing crisis, which is the last word in unsolvable political problems.
Why is the housing crisis politically unsolvable?
Most of the population thinks it is a good idea to have enough new homes to go around, but no homeowner wants them built anywhere near where they live.
And their feelings run much stronger on the second point than the first – yet intriguingly, only when there is a genuine prospect of those new homes being built.
So, every time the government launches a new initiative aimed at overhauling our archaic planning system so we can build more houses, Nimbies start panicking across the country, followed closely by their members of parliament.
The issue is exacerbated by the scale of the problem. First, just about everyone becomes a Nimby when there is a prospect of new housing estate being built next door, which is why backbenchers get so angsty about planning reforms.
Also, the government says we need to build 300,000 new homes every year, which is more than the number of homes in Oxfordshire.
Where exactly will we build them all? If we had a conveniently undeveloped parcel of land about the size of Wales sitting just outside London or Birmingham, we would be in pretty good shape, at least for the next few years.
But we do not, so all these new homes will need to be absorbed within the existing shires. In which case, how many people will start worrying they could end up with new homes being built on their doorsteps?
I suspect quite a few, which will provoke a significant Nimby backlash right across the country. And that, in turn, would make it politically problematic for any government to try to tackle the housing crisis head-on.
However, it is also politically dangerous for the government not to be seen to try to tackle the problem, particularly with an election looming large.
Luckily, the DLUHC’s housing team has the policy equivalent of a little black dress; a reliable ready-to-wear number that can be dusted off and repeatedly wheeled out for the big occasions, with just a few minor alterations here and there.
The policy in question is called permitted development rights, and if it sounds somewhat familiar it is because it is become the housing team’s go-to solution for getting more houses built over these past few years.
Permitted development rights
PDRs have a lot going for them, but first, let me explain what they do. There are two main types, and the first is aimed at homeowners looking to extend their homes.
As an example, there’s a PDR that allows you to extend your house in various directions without the need to ask the local council for permission first. You can just go ahead and build it.
