Labour’s ‘planning laws reform’ is really an attack on local democracy | Simon Jenkins

People should have a say in their surroundings. But in its bid to build 1.5m homes, the government has left them powerless

All proper democracies have two tiers, central and local. They are equally vital, but in Britain the second tier is all but dead. Local democracy has been crippled by Whitehall since Margaret Thatcher’s rate-capping in the 1980s and councils became cash-strapped agencies of central government. There are now fewer councillors in Britain than there are local councils in France....