Truly disgraceful. Damaging. A serious error. A striking failure. Populist but fallacious. Slums of the future. An uncontrolled experiment.

These are just some of the things architects and planners have been saying about the government’s radical shake up of planning rules, which will initially see permitted development rights expanded before a whole new zonal planning system is eventually introduced

While there are many legitimate concerns about these far-reaching proposals, could it be that the critics are missing the potential benefits of some of the more immediate changes?

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