South East Local election results: The shift in the political landscape

With Rishi announcing a General election for July 4^th, May’s local election seem like a distant memory. However, in the world of town planning these play a pivotal role in decision making and there has been a significant shift in the political landscape of a number of authorities across the country.

 

In a reflection of the national picture and maybe a sign of what is to come, the south-east saw a significant loss of seats for the Torys, with Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Green Party taking advantage.

 

In Kent, the Liberal Democrats swept the board at Tunbridge Wells (taking over from no overall control) and in Maidstone the Green Party and Labour gained a number of Conservative seats, leaving the authority with no overall control, and with no party with any great numerical advantage. However following full council the leader of the Greens, Stuart Jeffery was elected leader with key planning positions going to the Liberal Democrats. 

 

 

In Sussex, Hastings remained with no overall control albeit with the Green Party making significant gains. The Greens are now the largest party in the Authority (with 12). Crawley saw Labour hold on to control, gaining an additional 5 seats, as did Worthing. Adur District Council saw a Labour gain from Conservative with a swing of 8 seats.

 

 

Tandridge in Surrey remained with no party in overall control although the Local Residents’ Association are the largest group with 20 Members. Reigate and Banstead changed from Conservative to no overall control although with 18 Councillors they remain the largest party within the authority. Mole Valley saw the Liberal Democrats retain control and increasing their lead by one.

 

 

Elsewhere in the UK, there were significant gains for the Labour Party (+186 seats), particularly in the north-west with the Conservative Party seeing their results reflecting the national polling (-474 seats). The Liberal Democrats (+104) and Green Party (+74) both also making gains.

 

Within London, whilst there were no ‘local elections’ the Mayoral elections saw Sadiq Kahn (Labour) retain his position as mayor, with the Conservative candidate (Susan Hall) coming second. It is fair to say that Mr Khan’s manifesto on planning was relatively sparse and perhaps that is to be expected from a mayor heading into his third term and having seen through the adoption of the London Plan in 2021. Amongst general pledges to build ’40,000 new council homes’, Mr Khan’s substantial proposals are to introduce more top-down planning initiatives including ‘Land Assembly Zones’ and ‘Mayoral Development Corporations’. The former requires primary legislation in Westminster to see through changes to the compulsory purchase regime which devolves power to the Mayor and will almost certainly require a national Labour government to achieve. Essentially the idea is to identify areas with the prospect of future compulsory purchase which can be identified and land values ‘frozen’ by requiring planning permission for developments which result in an uplift in value to be ‘deferred’.

 

Clearly now the focus will be on the upcoming national election, with all main parties seeking planning reform in one form or another. It is clear however that housebuilding will be a key focus for the main parties, and we await with interest the results of the elections and any subsequent changes to policy.