Apparently I might have misjudged Grantham’s worthy MP Nick Boles. It seems he could be destined for even greater political heights than becoming the government’s new planning minister.
I understand that he has already founded top Cameron think-tank, the Policy Exchange, which is alleged to get funding from big business to argue for deregulation and privatisation.
Mr Boles was also quoted from a speech to the Tory Reform Group this year as claiming that the building of new houses is being deterred by “bureaucratic rigidity of our outdated planning regime.”
Controversial? It’s not for me to say.
In fact the Local Government Association has revealed that developers are actually hoarding not simply building land but also unused planning permission for some 400,000 homes.
Could this be one of the reasons for the growing number of unsightly and unused demolition sites in and around Grantham?
Presumably it also reveals that the government’s scheme to remove planning restrictions and allow developers to bulldoze the green belt is not simply about building more homes, but a way of boosting corporate profits with Yuppie developments in very beautiful and therefore very saleable locations.
In the same speech Nick Boles is quoted as attacking the beloved National Trust’s popular campaign to protect the green belt, criticising it as the, “hysterical scaremongering of latter-day Luddites.”
Our politically rising star is also said to be an initiate of the prestigious but secretive Bilderberg Group, which some “conspiracy theorists” say has so much power it can even exercise major influence on international governments.
Success indeed!
Who knows? Our Nick might one day have the ability to challenge the enigmatic Boris Johnson for David Cameron’s crown, although I would suspect his ambitions might be in other directions.
Peter Clawson
Welham Street, Grantham