He went on to say that planning was “failing in front of our eyes” citing France’s record of building three major airport runways since the last World Cup while the UK has built just one since 1945. He was scathing about the poor transport system which he blamed in planners not being responsive to Britain’s needs.

In Brighton & Hove the Economic Partnership is having ongoing discussions involving both private and public sector around the problems of planning restrictions and market demand. There appears to be a particular problem around B1 (light industrial) and B8 (warehousing) with the Local Plan ear-marking sites and premesis for the former when the demand is for the latter and latest government figures show very little difference in employment densities between the two uses.