The Economist: "Ministers are fighting—not successfully—to overcome NIMBYism and planning laws enacted in the 1940s"

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"The coalition government has pushed through planning reforms, which include a controversial 'presumption in favour of sustainable development'. In practice, this means councils deemed too NIMBYish by Westminster can be forced to approve more housing, or else risk uncontrolled speculative development. This modest reform has cost enormous political capital, and tied the government up in lawsuits with unhappy councils.

"Bulldozing fields is not yet an election-winning strategy, but opinion is beginning to shift. Polling by Ipsos MORI shows that a majority of people now regard rising house prices as a bad thing. Bank of England officials hint that the failure to build enough houses presents a structural risk to the British economy. Falling home-ownership is beginning to affect some target voters: 874,000 couples with children now rent privately, up from just 274,000 in the late 1990s.

"Yet the 1947 planning regime has lasted this long for a reason. The gains from lowering the cost of land and building more are broadly spread, whereas opposition is locally focused. And a majority of Britons are still home-owners—especially elderly voters in marginal suburban seats. Change will be slow."