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| Our green and pleasant Poundland? It will be if Mr Pickles calls the tune | Our green and pleasant Poundland? It will be if Mr Pickles calls the tune |
| (5 months later) | |
| Everyone cares about the economy. I'm worried about it myself. "How is the economy really doing?" I often wonder. I scrutinise the ups and downs of the FTSE as if it's the heart monitor of a sickly, giant, invisible loved one. I see boarded-up shops and worry that the economy is dying. I spot a crowded bar and hope it means the economy is fine. At the moment I'm not short of money, but I'm regularly informed that, while the economy's wounds continue to suppurate under Dr Osborne's eccentric poultices, I could easily and suddenly become so. | Everyone cares about the economy. I'm worried about it myself. "How is the economy really doing?" I often wonder. I scrutinise the ups and downs of the FTSE as if it's the heart monitor of a sickly, giant, invisible loved one. I see boarded-up shops and worry that the economy is dying. I spot a crowded bar and hope it means the economy is fine. At the moment I'm not short of money, but I'm regularly informed that, while the economy's wounds continue to suppurate under Dr Osborne's eccentric poultices, I could easily and suddenly become so. |
| The economy is an incredibly important thing, most of us would agree. But it's intangible. Whether it's doing well or not, you've still either got a job or you haven't. If it's doing well, you're statistically more likely to have a job, but you've still either got a job or you haven't. In general, we don't know whether we're personally experiencing the economy. We can't sense a fall in GDP, we just hear about it and slot our own situation into the media's narrative. If we're told the economy's weak, then the poor are poor because of that, and the rich rich despite it. In a supposed boom, it's the other way round. | The economy is an incredibly important thing, most of us would agree. But it's intangible. Whether it's doing well or not, you've still either got a job or you haven't. If it's doing well, you're statistically more likely to have a job, but you've still either got a job or you haven't. In general, we don't know whether we're personally experiencing the economy. We can't sense a fall in GDP, we just hear about it and slot our own situation into the media's narrative. If we're told the economy's weak, then the poor are poor because of that, and the rich rich despite it. In a supposed boom, it's the other way round. |
| As a naturally communal species, we crave a broader sense of how things are generally going. Economists and statisticians, the ratings agencies and the IMF, are modern-day augurs. They save us the embarrassment of hearing distant thunder and muttering: "The economy sounds ill – I'm going to sell my premium bonds and buy a gun." | As a naturally communal species, we crave a broader sense of how things are generally going. Economists and statisticians, the ratings agencies and the IMF, are modern-day augurs. They save us the embarrassment of hearing distant thunder and muttering: "The economy sounds ill – I'm going to sell my premium bonds and buy a gun." |
| Our most ancient way of sensing how things are generally going is to look around us. Is it sunny? Is an earthquake happening? Has all the vegetation died? Are all the buildings covered in vegetation? Has that vegetation also died? Is everything on fire? In Britain, the answer to those questions is usually "No". So we have to look for more subtle signs: there's a homeless man in a doorway – bad sign. There's a queue outside that sandwich shop – good sign. There's a queue outside that undertaker's – bad sign. A new branch of Budget Burger is opening – good sign. Next door to the undertaker's – bad sign. | Our most ancient way of sensing how things are generally going is to look around us. Is it sunny? Is an earthquake happening? Has all the vegetation died? Are all the buildings covered in vegetation? Has that vegetation also died? Is everything on fire? In Britain, the answer to those questions is usually "No". So we have to look for more subtle signs: there's a homeless man in a doorway – bad sign. There's a queue outside that sandwich shop – good sign. There's a queue outside that undertaker's – bad sign. A new branch of Budget Burger is opening – good sign. Next door to the undertaker's – bad sign. |
| So it's understandable that Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, is concerned about Britain's ailing high streets. Lots of boarded-up shops are bad news but they look like terrible news. The partially compensating boom in online sales and out-of-town shopping isn't perceptible as you watch a Chicken Cottage wrapper blow past a former HMV. Politicians know they can announce we've come out of recession till they're blue in the face – which would be a new colour for Eric – but people won't believe them if our town centres look like a scene from Threads. | So it's understandable that Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, is concerned about Britain's ailing high streets. Lots of boarded-up shops are bad news but they look like terrible news. The partially compensating boom in online sales and out-of-town shopping isn't perceptible as you watch a Chicken Cottage wrapper blow past a former HMV. Politicians know they can announce we've come out of recession till they're blue in the face – which would be a new colour for Eric – but people won't believe them if our town centres look like a scene from Threads. |
| Unfortunately, having identified the problem, Pickles's attempt to solve it is perverse. He's going to relax the planning rules which restrict how buildings are used. It will be a lot easier to use places currently classified as shops, restaurants, offices or leisure facilities as other things. For example, you'll be allowed to use empty offices as residential property, convert anything into a school, or open a shop or restaurant in an agricultural building, all without planning permission. | Unfortunately, having identified the problem, Pickles's attempt to solve it is perverse. He's going to relax the planning rules which restrict how buildings are used. It will be a lot easier to use places currently classified as shops, restaurants, offices or leisure facilities as other things. For example, you'll be allowed to use empty offices as residential property, convert anything into a school, or open a shop or restaurant in an agricultural building, all without planning permission. |
| How is that supposed to help our high streets? They're full of premises currently designated as shops, restaurants or cafes. For these areas to look and be prosperous, they need to be filled with profit-making shops, restaurants or cafes. We don't want them converted into anything else, because then those streets won't be high streets any more. And how is allowing people to open exactly the sort of business that was once the preserve of the high street in any barn anywhere going to drive commerce back to our historic trading hubs? Surely it will have the opposite effect. | How is that supposed to help our high streets? They're full of premises currently designated as shops, restaurants or cafes. For these areas to look and be prosperous, they need to be filled with profit-making shops, restaurants or cafes. We don't want them converted into anything else, because then those streets won't be high streets any more. And how is allowing people to open exactly the sort of business that was once the preserve of the high street in any barn anywhere going to drive commerce back to our historic trading hubs? Surely it will have the opposite effect. |
| What would help high streets is if it wasn't so easy to get planning permission for shopping centres and massive warehouse stores on bypasses. If you want prosperous shops in the middle of towns where the shops are supposed to be, the last thing you should do is let people set them up wherever the hell they like. Mr Pickles is either stupid or has been swayed by the malign influence of lobbyists. Stupid or dishonest? It's so difficult to know which to prefer. Of course there's always the outside chance of both. | What would help high streets is if it wasn't so easy to get planning permission for shopping centres and massive warehouse stores on bypasses. If you want prosperous shops in the middle of towns where the shops are supposed to be, the last thing you should do is let people set them up wherever the hell they like. Mr Pickles is either stupid or has been swayed by the malign influence of lobbyists. Stupid or dishonest? It's so difficult to know which to prefer. Of course there's always the outside chance of both. |
| Apart from failing in its stated aim, the other downside of this plan is that it might ruin the countryside. Already, you don't need planning permission to erect a barn. Now you won't need planning permission to turn a barn into a restaurant or shop. Can anyone spot a problem? How long will you have to pretend to keep hay in a new barn before turning it into an Asda? | Apart from failing in its stated aim, the other downside of this plan is that it might ruin the countryside. Already, you don't need planning permission to erect a barn. Now you won't need planning permission to turn a barn into a restaurant or shop. Can anyone spot a problem? How long will you have to pretend to keep hay in a new barn before turning it into an Asda? |
| To be fair, these rule changes are all temporary: an emergency measure because we're so worried about the economy. "Please trade!" ministers are begging. "Set up anything, selling anything, anywhere! Hire out anywhere you like to do anything you want!" All the usual rules will be waived. They probably considered an amnesty on drug-dealing and prostitution. Just till we get the economy going. It would be a tremendous injection of wealth. Those pimps really splash it about. | To be fair, these rule changes are all temporary: an emergency measure because we're so worried about the economy. "Please trade!" ministers are begging. "Set up anything, selling anything, anywhere! Hire out anywhere you like to do anything you want!" All the usual rules will be waived. They probably considered an amnesty on drug-dealing and prostitution. Just till we get the economy going. It would be a tremendous injection of wealth. Those pimps really splash it about. |
| But, like crack and hookers in city centres, the sight of barns turning into nail bars doesn't boost our sense of prosperity as much as a vibrant high street. Even if these measures generate commerce, it won't be confidence-building commerce. Nobody thinks: "I notice that barn is still used for corn – the economy must be in trouble." Whereas they might say: "People seem to be living in that disused office block – is this the end of days?" or "That old industrial estate unit is being used as a school – was there a recent tsunami that no one told me about?" | But, like crack and hookers in city centres, the sight of barns turning into nail bars doesn't boost our sense of prosperity as much as a vibrant high street. Even if these measures generate commerce, it won't be confidence-building commerce. Nobody thinks: "I notice that barn is still used for corn – the economy must be in trouble." Whereas they might say: "People seem to be living in that disused office block – is this the end of days?" or "That old industrial estate unit is being used as a school – was there a recent tsunami that no one told me about?" |
| These strange and panicky measures, like Pickles's idea of letting people extend their houses without planning permission, are a worrying development which will engender worrying developments. Britain is a first-world country, but in order to remain one it has to look like one. Currently it still does, largely because buildings can't just get thrown up willy-nilly and random disused premises aren't inexpertly adapted without official sanction. | These strange and panicky measures, like Pickles's idea of letting people extend their houses without planning permission, are a worrying development which will engender worrying developments. Britain is a first-world country, but in order to remain one it has to look like one. Currently it still does, largely because buildings can't just get thrown up willy-nilly and random disused premises aren't inexpertly adapted without official sanction. |
| If we remove the laws conserving this fabric for a brief economic boost, if we turn offices into flats, shops into schools and barns into pound stores, we'll look poorer even if we get richer. If we decide that planning regulations are a luxury we can no longer afford, it may help our economy in the short term. In the long term, it will imply that we're resigned to becoming second-rate. | If we remove the laws conserving this fabric for a brief economic boost, if we turn offices into flats, shops into schools and barns into pound stores, we'll look poorer even if we get richer. If we decide that planning regulations are a luxury we can no longer afford, it may help our economy in the short term. In the long term, it will imply that we're resigned to becoming second-rate. |
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