Borough Warlords Exacerbating British Housing Crisis Case Study

Borough Warlords Exacerbating British Housing Crisis - Case Study Example These councillors and planning officers are not royal patrons free to dispense with public goods at their discretion or whim to favored constituents; quite the contrary, they are public servants bound to comply with the rule of law, Sadly, they do not feel bound to comply with their statutory and ethical obligations. Patrons and warlords they are, the borough their private fiefdom, and public goods their currency in trade. This is a story of the dangers of decentralization, how decentralization is functioning as an incentive for local councilors to treat planning decisions as a sort of patronage-oriented gift, and how Britain's housing crisis is being exacerbated in the process. Such allegations are not new, they have been around for ages, but the negligent councilors seems to wait until the latest scandal is distant to the public's ear before they begin plying their nefarious trade in public trust and public approvals again; indeed, just barely six years ago, the Telegraph reported: The seam of corruption running through Doncaster council was laid bare with the convictions of five people including Peter Birks, the council's head of planning, and the former mayor and council deputy leader, Raymond Stockhill, who took lavish bribes to process a planning application. Others, including John Dainty, the leader of the Tory group, who was cleared of corruption in this case, face further allegations. What began more than four years ago with a "whisper of wrongdoing", said a police source, had grown into a vast investigation; 74 arrests were made, 23 Labour councillors have so far been convicted for expenses fraud and more than 2,000 people have been questioned. But the case of Birks and Stockhill exposed the worst incidence of corruption within the Labour-dominated council. In the instant case, the councillors are acting alone to deny otherwise valid planning applications; all the while they are using deceptive practices, they are flaunting and violating applicable rules and regulations, and they honestly believe that they are both above the law and beyond the reach of the law. When will this type of behaviour stop This case is much more important than a single person or a couple of property developers; to be sure, this type of story has implications for borough councils throughout the kingdom, for individuals and businesses struggling with the worsening housing crisis, and for public policy officials wondering why there well-considered decentralization programmes are not working to expedite planning approvals or to alleviate housing shortages. Many of the answers can be found right here in this story. The audience ought to be vast: people unable to afford or find affordable flats for their families; insiders working for local borough offices whom have been told to remain silent despite breaches of relevant laws and constitutional procedures; members of the local business community whom have been