If Labour isn’t offering a serious overhaul of planning regulations to force through new housing it has no business touting images of beautiful townscapes that are illegal to build, says Henry Hill

Last week, Labour launched its big offer on housing. As is now becoming the norm, it was accompanied by lots of pretty pictures. But where Michael Gove left it to enthusiastic Yimbys to create AI visions of his New Cambridge, Angela Rayner went to the professionals.

The resulting “sketched illustrative vision” in Create Streets’ short report, Becoming a Nation of Townbuilders, are very appealing. I’m sure millions of Brits would love to live in the sort of communities they depict.

But there’s a reason we don’t build them, and it isn’t (just) because an oligopoly of big developers don’t need to put in nearly so much effort to sell homes in an acute shortage. No, it’s because many of the design features that make the illustrated streets so appealing are illegal.

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