Today marks 380 years since the Self-Denying Ordinance was unexpectedly introduced to the floor of the House of Commons by the MP Zouch Tate on 9 December 1644. Arguably, this reform was the key factor in enabling parliament to win the first and second Civil Wars against Charles I and then beat his son (Charles II) a few years later in the third and final conflict.
The Ordinance was a cross-party measure, with Oliver Cromwell one of the key figures shepherding it through parliament. The key factor that led to the Ordinance was the rumbling feud between Cromwell and his then commanding officer the Earl of Manchester. But this was in the context of general disquiet about the effectiveness of the parliamentary forces and in particular the calibre and actions of its senior commanders. Men such as Manchester and the Earl of Essex, who were seen as being overly cautious and consequently costing parliament the chance of a victory following their failure to press on properly after the triumph at Marston Moor earlier that year. There were widespread calls for reform, not only from parliament, but from within the military itself, with support from commanders such as Sir Thomas Fairfax and Sir William Waller among others.
The aim of the Ordinance was to force out all those commanders such as Manchester and Essex, but also Cromwell and Waller among several others, who served as both military commanders and parliamentarians. It was argued that his led to conflicts of interest, divided loyalties and ineffective leadership. Alongside this, parliament also chose to reorganise the military into the New Model Army. A professional, centralised national force, moving away from the local forces paid for and controlled by the counties.
The Ordinance was eventually passed by Parliament on April 3, 1645. The final version required members of Parliament to resign their military offices within 40 days, but allowed for reappointment if necessary (hence how Cromwell ended up commanding the army and then later the country). It was a resounding success, as the New Model Army led by committed commanders – no longer facing the pressures of political life – pursued an aggressive strategy. They won a series of victories and finally bringing the royalist cause to its knees, the King to the negotiating table (later the executioners block) and the Civil War to an end.
So far this may appear as a somewhat interesting historical tangent, but what’s the connection to today’s housing crisis, you may well ask? Well, in short, if we really want to solve the housing crisis, end the constant cycle of impeding development and get Britain working as a functioning economy and society again, then we need a Self-Denying Ordinance for the planning system.
Let me explain. As the policy wonk Sam Bowman has outlined, in far too many ways we live in a ‘vetocracy’. Too many people have too many opportunities to object to developments. Plus they have no incentive not to object and indeed all the incentives in the world to impede as much as possible. While lots of people understand this and know we need reform, too many of them are unwilling to grasp the nettle properly and deal with the fundamental issue at the heart of the system.
For example, the recent report ‘Get Britain Building’ by the Fabian Society’s local government and housing group is very good with some excellent ideas for reform. But it also argues that what we need is a more representative sample of the public consulted during the planning process. No doubt this will help at the margin – but fundamentally, this won’t solve the core issue. What we really need is to learn from the example of parliament during the Civil War and as a country take a Self-Denying Ordinance for planning and reduce the number of opportunities each of us has to object to development.
The alternative is that even if we do significant reform, the system will eventually revert to impeding and blocking development again as the fundamental incentives inherent in it will remain unchanged – highly motivated Nimbys will continue to be the most likely to turn up to and serve on planning committees. Ideally, Whitehall would align incentives by devolving a significant stream of local tax revenue (ie. property tax) to the control of local areas – creating a clear link between development, growth and increased tax revenues and spending on local services in the minds of not only councils but more importantly the public – this is what used to happen and was one of the reasons that the pre-war UK was able to build so much.
But in a world where the government (of whichever party) seems unwilling to do that, denying ourselves the right to object would seem to be the only way we will be able to significantly increase development and growth sustainably in the long term. The role of Cromwell was crucial in getting the Self-Denying Ordinance passed, unfortunately we may have to wait until a politician of his stature, cunning and ruthlessness appears again to get a modern Self-Denying Ordinance and solve the problems of the UK’s planning system once and for all.
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