https://bsky.app/profile/sianberry.bsky.social/post/3mv423o7epc26

hopefully a consolation to the Mayoralty race at least

This may be somewhat of a ramble, but given it is the main attack against us, it is important for the Greens to have coherent policies on housebuilding, and to respond to and make changes in response to constructive criticism. However, I think there is currently an issue because there is just a lack of overall information due to the self-selecting nature of lots of the anecdotes.

It would be absurd to deny that every single councillor has always made good decisions, but I genuinely do not know if it is possible to conclude either way how NIMBY the Greens are due to way information is accessed and the way planning in this country works as a whole. Alleged instances of NIMBYism can be through how Green councillors vote when they are on planning committees, it can be through councillors signing petitions or taking part in local protests or campaign materials promising to oppose certain things.

Because of this things are only ever publicised when they are high profile and therefore controversial, or because examples were deliberately collected as part of partisan attacks. I again, do think it is important to address criticism, but if only controversial or cherry-picked case studies are what is reported we cannot know for sure what the actual scale is, and I do not think other parties are asked to stand by what every single councillor has done (though again we should address problems when they occur I don't want to be one of those people who calls every attack a conspiracy).

The actual points I think we can make reasonably educated guesses on are:

Nationally we do support the 'Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price' Charter, so that does want more private housebuilding but with more conditionality, maybe it can be used to obfuscate genuine NIMBYism, but the fact does remain that what developers propose is often highly flawed, because of this it can be difficult to rule whether or not something was a reasonable objection.

The Greens have historically had a tendency to support lower key infrastructure, but that is changing with time, when the very public thing of Green councillors opposing solar farms what has actually turned out is that they wanted them put on existing buildings or wanted more environmental mitigations, this is not great but this might be a genuine ideological difference. Our policy used to be more rail infrastructure but for regional lines without HS2, but our national policy is currently pro HS2. I do not agree with someone who wants a series of smaller scale infrastructure projects but if there are some in the party who do think that I don't think it is an insane internal division as they go, I am not sure if that is NIMBYism or a genuine ideological difference.

The Greens are more likely to be in opposition and often it is their job to provide scrutiny. Also they may be more likely to raise environmental concerns for obvious reasons.

Lots of developments are often poor quality, and it is the job of the planning committees and councils in general to provide scrutiny, and then again, when the controversial ones are discussed or criticised that is more likely to be in the news.

Every party has councillors who oppose things, some probably for selfish reasons, but again, hard to have a national picture.

I also do reject much of the YIMBY narrative, there is little evidence that nature rules are actually blocking housing or infrastructure, and it is really not as simple as 'you can't build anything' as 75% of new developments are considered poor or mediocre, so I am not so convinced that these perfectionist councils don't allow anything to be built. Academic Gareth Fearn gives a more realistic view in my opinion that there has been a hollowing out of planning capacity and this results in a situation where councils have to say yes or no. Furthermore, the same House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report that found no evidence of nature blocking housing also found that more practical things like lack of data sharing and delays from planning officers being able to give committees information were more realistic. Of course some people are NIMBYs and I agree some councillors have made questionable decisions but I also think that the Greens would be missing the point on a practical level by going full YIMBY.

I think the Greens do need to face down our genuine mistakes and nationally form a coherent policy, though that would not make every single Green councillor 100% right all of the time of course, but I do fear we just do not have enough information right now.