Already outraged that houses are to be built in their back yard, nothing could make the situation worse for NIMBYs than the news that those houses might be ugly.
That is, however, exactly what Angela Rayner and the new Labour government have in store for reeling NIMBY councils across the country, as they outlined plans to impose housing targets across the country.
In Labour’s revised planning rule book, the government has deleted almost every use of the word “beautiful” in their requirements for new homes.
One crucial sentence in Labour’s new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which once read, “planning policies and decisions should aim to achieve healthy, inclusive and safe places and beautiful buildings,” will now omit any reference to “beautiful buildings.”
Labour said they are removing the Conservative’s emphasis on attractive homes because “references to ‘beauty’ and ‘beautiful’ may result in inconsistency in how it is applied in decision-making, as many find the term subjective and difficult to define.”
Angela Rayner added, in an interview with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2, that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder… beautiful means nothing really.”
Conservative NIMBY councillors reacted in exasperation to the development. The leader of Derbyshire County Council tweeted: “So not only will Labour build over the countryside, they’ll endeavour to do so with grey, ugly houses”.
Meanwhile, charities were unfazed by changes to beauty standards and instead reacted with delight to Angela Rayner’s housing targets and ‘council house revolution.” Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, called her announcement “music to our ears. More social housing is what we need to end the housing emergency.”
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