Is Richmond the Nimbyest place in London? - Financial Times

"The London Plan is not a binding document, however. 'You get a lot of targets with no means of delivering them,' says Sir Mark Boleat, chairman of the Housing and Finance Institute...

Too many pitchfork-bearing locals and not enough shovel-bearing developers can stymie new projects but, according to Boleat, the real issue is the byzantine planning system. 'The system is weighted against development: it can take a long time; the whole process is expensive. The builders will have spent millions before they start building. We all are agreed we need more housing, so you would think policy would be about removing obstacles. It isn't.' The national government, he suggests, may be distracted by other business. That the government is on its eighth housing minister in eight years corroborates that theory."

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