Any party that suffers an electoral defeat goes through a period of reflection and renewal. The crushing reality of leaving government must be a painful experience and it is perhaps not surprising that few parties get back to power at the first attempt. Labour, this week, was trying to demonstrate that the wreckage of the 2010 election defeat is in the past, that the process of renewal is well advanced and that they have the ideas to govern. Commentators will doubtless write tomes on this over the next 48 hours offering their assessment of progress. The ultimate test will, of course, come in May 2015 when the voters get to decide. So, it has been interesting watching, listening and talking to people within the party this week. As an environmentalist, it was good for me to see Ed Miliband recapture his passion for the environment in his speech yesterday - someone who had a leadership role on climate change in government became surprisingly muted when in opposition. Yesterday's speech must not be a one-off. As I wrote recently, we need to hear more about the environment from political leaders.
It was equally good to hear from others about the importance of integrating environmental considerations (including nature) into sectors such as housing and farming. This is the right direction of travel for all sectoral policy development and for all parties.
Having set out their vision and ambition, people will quite rightly ask how the parties plan to achieve their ambition. The parties need to be convincing and we're happy to help any party come up with ideas that we think will work based on our experience.
So, for example, if you want to build 200,000 greener, affordable homes without trashing the environment, you need to do, at least, four things:
We'll say more about these issues in the coming days through our Saving Special Places blog. And, more importantly, we'll continue to share our thinking with any party that is prepared to listen!
How funny it all is,the last 3 days or so they have found all the answers and yet in about 13 years of Government they only found ways to take the country close to bankruptcy.Oh yes the two Eds were two of the biggest culprits afraid of sticking there heads above the parapet and losing a job making them millionaires.Their motto is stick together comrades socialism is our watchword until we ruin the country.
Milliband's speech has been accused of being 'socialist' on the basis he was attacking the free market. That is rubbish. There is nothing free about the near-monopolies created by neo-liberal economics in energy, water, and rail: how, if this is a real market, have prices continued to rise above inflation throughout a deep recession ? Similarly, it is ludicrous to see the ownership of building land as 'free market' when values are totally dependant on the rationing of the (public) planning system. Land is given planning permission for development, not so it can be used as yet another dodgy financial instrument. It is there to build badly needed houses, not to make developers rich through doing nothing. And that, surely, is where one of the great opportunities for a better Britain must lie: today, we see development as a necessary evil, but what if we had a different approach ? Where the land around new development was managed for the urban people, providing open access, fresh air and exercise, recharging batteries from nature - and habitat - and was part of our environmental management systems, absorbing floods in winter, holding water in summer, providing low-carbon fuel from beautiful bird rich woodlands and so on - all paid for with some of the lottery-like financial gains inherent in our present planning system.
Nothing on big builder oligopoly control of land banks and price of building land or speculative activities here controlling supply and price....when there are I believe 700,000 plots with planning permission?
And I'd add a fifth thing for new housing - create a low carbon transport infrastructure around them - heck, this might even let you walk to the shops and create a sense of community!