That story of Mohammed from Gaza is incredibly sad.

Thank you Michael. Thank you Helena.

I launched a judicial review with a community group in 2019 to stop local NHS cuts. The public consultation/JR model DOES create long delays and generates millions for private consultancy firms, however a big part of the reason is that most plans for 'significant changes' are not designed to suit or serve the public in the first place. Public consultations cost millions bc they are glossy, lie-packed dissent-crushing vehicles and the outcomes (ie the public's opinion) is totally ignored. Not all local dissent is selfish, and it's not all about building either, it can affect how public services are run. The process needs changing but let's not be conned by Cummings - he'd love to obliterate local consultations for all the wrong reasons. There's often a third option for local dissent, which is to get your local councillors to 'refer plans back' to government. Our group engaged with all three options, and we won the public argument, but ultimately we lost in court and our efforts at the council were nobbled by the councillors we'd persuaded being swapped out at the last minute before the vote!

We don't have so much of a shortage of homes, but lack a policy of home ownership. How many people could be housed if it was made illegal/very difficult to have second or third homes? That way the precious environment can be spared the concrete and we can retain farm/forestry land.

On GB Energy: it's still unclear what role private investment plays and what's in it for them. When battling NHS privatisation, campaigners always demand that NHS services are publicly FUNDED, OWNED, and MANAGED. If any of those three are private, exploitation and profiteering will undercut quality of care and accessibility. If I have understood correctly, the PUBLICLY FUNDED part seems to be missing from the description of GB Energy.

The biased broadcasting corporation are disgusting in the way that they cover news generally but particularly over Gaza This is a truly heartbreaking. I speak as a teacher of pupils with special needs. 😢

Disgusted by the story of poor wee Mohammed. Even more so by the bbcs deliberate obfuscation. Heartbreaking

I live within the greater Manchester green belt ring road. I think most of it is grade 1 agricultural land a d has been bought by Peel holdings. This will be a travesty for our green belt as they will build and can fight any opposition. Some of the land is peat land which is a carbon sink and full of biodiversity. The new building regs will destroy so much prime land. A state owned developer to build affordable council homes is what is needed. Not loads of private sector developers.

Nationalise rail..nationalise water.. not very exciting announcements in Scotland (done already). GB energy headquartered in Scotland.. not very enticing either as you look forward to having your resources further funnelled off to your neighbour for free. 2 child benefit cap… mitigated here in Scotland. So, a raft of “new”policies that were started over 20 years ago in Scotland. Embarrassing

If you live near derelict factories, disused car parks, boarded up pubs, abandoned farms/golf courses, you likely have youths drinking / taking dr*gs, and criminal gangs operating on those sites. More houses near you doesn't necessarily mean more crowding... rather, it means more homeless people not sleeping rough and occupied houses instead of derelict sites with crime.

Above ground pylons are 80% less costly over its lifespan than underground grids.

The problem with Labour's planning proposals is that about 15 years ago Building firms were buying up large tracts of agricultural land in anticipation of this change. There will this be huge pressure on Labour to have this cheap land developed just because it is already available and without any real consideration of it suitability. At he same time Labour have not given local authorities power to force development on brownfield sites or to prevent them being forced to sell council houses at a discount three years after they are built.

I also grew up near Leyton. Michael's mention of the M11 link road brought back a memory of me seeing it under construction when I was young.

We have had the three housing developments (600+ new homes) built within 3 miles but no investment towards services, infrastructure, schools etc. This is why people are objecting. The small sum of money which the developers have to invest in the local community isn’t enough to offset the thousands of people moving in. I support these developments.. but we need to make sure the local area can cope. There are already issues with school places and access to healthcare.

Thank you Michael and Helena 😊

I live in east London. Lots of high rises are being built, but has the impact on local infrasture been considered? Availability of dentists, GPs, schools, footfall at rush hour at stations and how packed it already is at some stations? Not listening to residents and their reasons for opposing building developments is not the way forward. I would also like more green space instead of two tiny parks. Trees will help with cooling the area down as well.

Glasgow was the worst when it came to building motorways through the city centre .

No point building new houses that aren't affordable

First time in history that the Monarch is more radical politically than the Labour Leader....Keir Starmer! W.....T....actual........F (Yes I know the king is saying what he is told in his speech, but I refer to him being more radical than Starmer in his own politics nothing to do with today) Love to you

Absolutely shocked at Michael’s ignorance about ecology. Very anthropocentric and actually sadly very bourgeois. There are absolutely tonnes of of empty homes, more than double the number of homeless people. The problem is house prices, not lack of house. Come on!

Getting rid of local intervention in building projects is worrying. I'm thinking of the housing campaigns in London since around 2015. Instead of ending managed decline, estates were going to be bulldozed in the name of "urban regeneration", although they could be refurbished. Residents intervened, designed realistic people's plans, won judicial reviews and in some cases, like in Cressingham Gardens, they won. These were not nimbys. They were residents using what you call red tape to save their homes, neighbourhoods, communities, livelihoods.

NM guests are incredible! Imagine if Govt ministers were as well-informed and across their brief!

Thank you Michael and Helena you guys are great keep getting Helena on she is great love her channel😊

49:41 the irony of Truss's bitter statement is that if it weren't for her precipating the interest rate hikes following her unimplemented budget, the Tories wouldn't be the Opposition today.

How can the uk move forward when we have a ridiculous man, Charles, in a ridiculous hat, presented as a superior being?

While I accept planning is a complex issue Walker's Stalinist view that Government can override local democracy is alarming particularly as this sort of centralization panders to both Labour/Tory authoritarianism!!! Far better to actually ensure local communities have the real democracy & resources to solve their issues & that they are mandated legally to address housing needs by providing social housing! Councils used to have the legal obligation to house people this should be boosted & not just the houses councils should when having to build houses ensure the appropriate infratstructure is also built!!

I think Michael argues his 'build on fields' and 'create more forests' points with great enthusiasm. I sort of applaud his ' impose HS2' zeal. But I do not think he quite understands the needs to also protect a wide array of wildlife spaces and environments. Something to look at maybe. There are many, many field that do not need to be protected from the building of more council and social homes but there's also more to green spaces than somewhere to walk the dog.

Michael you are now the best presenter in the UK. Good show!

An unexpected StarCraft reference, but a welcome one for sure

Sorry to call this out, but Michael saying that there's green space near him that shouldn't be built on, but there is in other places, is exactly what NIMBY is?! As if all communities don't have a place like that? I get this is his classic, both sides of the argument, approach but this is the issue with NIMBYism - it's not ok in other places but our place needs the green space more. I'm sure there's a wider discussion here about the specifics, but this seems a short sighted comment given the wider discussion?

That story is absolutely horrific; how could they do that to another person? I'm also so disappointed in the BBC, i Unbiased it ain't

I'll be honest I hate our fields, living in Cornwall they're endless and there's no biodiversity and very few forests and such where they'd have naturally been. BUT I still think it makes more sense to focus on high density development first so we don't end up with this massive urban sprawl (like in the US). I'd much rather see those fields given back to the wilds and have lots of nice flora & fauna in them.

52:18 and Norway like many other countries in Europe that also have better working conditions and living standards than the UK (Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium etc), have a larger proportion of immigrants as part of their population too before the Tory/Reform crowd retort.

Remember this guy got advice from Jimmy Saville

Muhammed's story tells you all you need to know about "the most moral army in the world".

Your King looks weak, sick, ridiculous.

Michael, once again showing his total ignorance of 'green fields' and their function in ecology. Please do some courses on this Michael. It's pathetic. It's also making me consider my very small but regular support of Novara. Sadly.

That StarCraft reference was gold. Top marks!

It's amazing how well King Charle's speech sounds so much like Snake in Harry Potter. Yeah let's trust this guy!

Neoliberal Labour's Housing strategy to build so many houses, admittedly I've not seen the detail, the real question will be are these going to be genuine social housing or will just like under the neoliberal Tory Gov only a small percentage will be to ensure the private developers make their huge profits! Rather than forcing Gov policy on local communities would be better to put legal/political pressure on Councils to build Council Houses!!

boring politics? that's what we need!

I'm with you Michael, but greenfield development will only be accessible to large developers. I lived and worked in the south of New Zealand for a year, and there, you can buy a plot of land and build your own home. The self build allocation in this country is a joke, your only option realistically is to buy an overpriced, poor quality new build from a greedy developer.

Too little, too late. No PR, no Rejoin, no Media regulation, no elected Senate, etc.

I can't take this circus show seriously.....think we're inside the matrix. Seeking economic growth by selling the crown jewels would be a start.

Regarding Labour's plans for home building; hopefully Labour will take the opportunity to outline to the public just how much publicly owned land and buildings local authorities and other public services were forced to sell off on the cheap through Cameron's Austerity program and the general strangling of funds imposed on these services by the Conservatives for 14 years. Transferred public wealth to privateers and costing generations the opportunities of good housing.

i want to see a return of hamonic development where housing estates must have things like parks and green spaces in them, one major issue ive had with the green belt policy is suddenly our inner city has been increasingly tarmaced over because they say oh well the green belt is only a small drive away so we dont need this green space here.

It's not the King's speech, it's the King's Bling.

Quite funny watching Nick Robinson interviewing himself .

We Must Construct Additional Pylons

I cant listen to this bejeweled man

53:51 The Dutch news agencies, newspapers and other media coverage did the same thing. They ran with the same dispicable headline.🤬

Planning appeal success rates over the past quarter January - March 2024 average 28%, according to the latest statistics issued by the Planning Inspectorate. This means Planning Committees (most commonly) refused permission erroneously. Often in these cases the Planning Officer will recommend permission, but the councillors vote against the recommendation. Perhaps in these instances, costs could be awarded against the council, as a consequence.

Not trying to talk down our defended NIMBY’s but NM and especially every time I hear Micheal talk about farmland and using for construction he seems to just throwing out generalised statements rather than actual facts. Just saying a field is a field and we have a over abundance of agricultural land when the fact is we don’t. not all fields can grow human food crops and fields are not constant production lines fields need recovery time and those recovery times are need more regular if you want more environmentally friendly farming. We have lots of concrete fields I.e.parking all over the UK that we should be covering with solar panels first and encouraging farmers to place raised solar panels in summer grazing fields/ unworkable areas in working fields before we start just covering any field

Come into the rural areas. Overdevelopment is choking our waterways.

If the population continues to increase year on year, what’s the plan, just build over all the countryside? I think we should be reusing town sites sitting empty, preventing people having second homes, building more stories high buildings rather than houses and encouraging different ways of living ie communes or flat complexes with shared or small gardens vs the current way of lots of single people and couples without children living in 3 bed houses with large gardens. This can be incentivised. I completely disagree with building on green fields or even brown. I grew up in the heavily built up East coast, which has been described on Wikipedia as just ever expanding sprawl of (ugly) housing estates. Kids do not know what a meadow or even a bird is. People can’t just leave their home and walk out into the countryside because it’s house everywhere, the dogs get a walk around a housing estate. It is so depressing. and in our “Villega” we were devastated when the 2 small areas of scrub land, the only non brick & playing field , for miles were built on. Which is what will happen under The Labour Party committed to house building and growth at any cost and on the cheap so that they could avoid taxing the rich

Sorry but your views are so city centric.

Agree that a green MP being nimby over renewables infrastructure is not a good look for the green party.

Rest In Peace Mohammed Bhar. We will never forget your kind words towards an animal trained to maime and kill. "Khalas, habibi, khalas."❤

You ignore local democracy, you'll get direct action in some places. Also I grew up in the country side and whilst there was a lot of nature and green spaces a disproportionate amount of it was owned privately! Footpaths are disappearing too as greedy land owners basically just illegally seize them by putting up fences and the like. Although there is a lot of green space increasingly it's becoming less and less accessible... This is exactly why local democracy is so important because people albeit very informed and intelligent, are generally stupid when it comes to things they have little experience of. Although living in a city now I think it's more important to protect our green spaces in cities. But I think this idea you have of rural areas is just wrong. Especially for the working classes.

Stalin would have called British inquiries, consultations, reviews, etc very effective Potemkin villages.

Poor sweet Mohammed. This genocide has produced so many needless callous tragedies.

09:15 We shouldn't build on greenbelt because developments there are low-density, car-dependent infrastructure, and is far more damaging to the environment than building on brownfield. We don't need more land covered in concrete. Greenbelt suburbs do nothing to help net zero, vision zero (road safety) goals, or reduce transport poverty. Instead we should be building mid-density (gentle density) developments in urban areas on brownfield, of a density to support excellent public transport and active travel infrastructure, and help build a more equitable society.

With the global population reducing why is it seen as standard that the population of the UK needs to increase by a million a year

Why the silly 1824-ish outfit? For did not Charlie promise that he would be a "modern", fully up-to-date, King?

Not heard you mention your dog before, MW - can he/she visit the studio just for a quick appearance to please animal-loving Novara fans?

Dominic Cummings also mentioned that if you have a civil service that is full of the kind of people you want you need to pay the same levels aa the private sector. This would apply to state owned companies too? How can you have a state building company or environmental consultancy if you can't get the staff because you're not willing to pay them. Then, if you set up one of these they get called a "quango" and the daily mail compares the pay there to the pay of MPs or the prime minister.

Its an absurd pantomime

27:57 Michael is right and with the right plan you could tackle the housing crisis, rewild the U.K, create renewable (energy) infrastructure and other infrastructure like high speed rail. The U.K has a lot of potential for renewable energy, be it wind and solar (rooftop is the most underestimated in your country I think) or lesser known ones like tidal or hydro (when done right). I think the average person should be benefitting through lower bills and markets won't allow for that so, nationalize all energy infrastructure!

You cant build on green belt! You cant have right to roam that green belt either 🥴🥴 wild camping? I dont think so!

I don't get the point, what's Kier telling the king that he isnt telling to the voters and why? shouldn't kier be telling us what the government's going to do anyway?

Look at that ridiculous hat, lol 😂

I agree with Rishi that people know better how to spend their money. Should maybe pay them more.

Helena has there number.... brilliant reporter 😊

npower doesn’t exist? What is that Labour guy and Michael on about?

I do like your analysis/commentary, but the apparently random emphasis you place on words as you speak is really difficult for me to listen to for long.

I think the King would look cool wearing a nose-ring.

I love it when you have Helena on; I wish I had _half_ the brain power she has. Not only is she incredibly informed about a metric sh¦ttonne (actual SI unit) of stuff, but she has the nouse to clearly elucidate said knowledge to us mere mortals. I honestly don't know how she's not the CEO of a top-ten company performing brain surgery on rockets while doing quantum mechanical calculations (in her head) and reciting Pi to infinity, all at the same time. 🤯 /Fanboi post. 🤓

Hackney marshes isn’t “nature” ffs touch *real* grass

Chazzer's crown has got dangly bits.

I am interested because this episode shows me some lack of basic logic and short-sighted opinions on the planning and city making. I feel that there is more to be discussed and more things to be evaluated, I think you should avoid dropping your opinion as much as you do Michael, maybe give your opinion once you have few more people that can debate the topic a little more. Or there is the issue that you might affect people without knowledge in a bad way.

Worth remembering that the VAST majority of fields and space even in rural areas (particularly in the South of England) is privately owned and already off limits to the general public. Combine that with often shameful public transport and a lack of youth services / sporting opportunities / etc due to aging populations in these communities and you start to see how the rural poor, while having it slightly better in some areas, are often no better off, and in many ways worse of than their urban counterparts. I live rurally, in an areas where there is a good bit of poverty, and I take my kids out into nature as often as possible, but I can count on one hand how many times I've ever bumped into any of their friends and their families out on a walk. You're often confined to unmaintained dog XXX filled tracks between fields.

Stolen jewels in the crown

is it me or does charles looks not well at all

Fruit forests, not fields!

The idea that the green energy transition is the answer to good jobs is a nonsense as well. High tech manufacturing doesn't employ many people at all. A great thing to do, but not the answer to good jobs for all in this country. Look at the resolution foundations economy 2030 reports for details.

If they build so many homes. They need to plan for proper roads without congestion.

Thx for all the news update especially on UK . Fact is British loves debates n often without aolutions as it is only natural that someone would disagree. Question really is then the big picture. What comes first. Something has to give. Notice can't help condescending remarks on the "Communist" Party of China. Well the only thing communist about it is the name. U can name your son Jesue but that doesn't make him the son of God (unless of course u calim the title). Perhaps a visit to China might open up minds n freshen the outlook. For your information, after the 100 yrs of humiliation, nothing much stand in good form. People were happy to see their dilapidated housing go as they get compensated either with money, a replaced property at a site of their choosing. So it is not as if they are forced onto streets. Afterall, yhe country has brought 800m people out of poverty.. Don't listen to me, draw your own conclusion, go visit.

Look at the State on this King

❤️ star craft reference

Is it 2024 or 1624?

Biden (81): Soy la persona sólo mejor que Trump! 🇺🇲: 70% quiere una nueva candidato para mantener democracia. Joe está demasiado viejo. Tenemos muchas otras opciones de dirigentes. Harris (59): Soy la opcion mejor, "blue," la "VP" y tengo la 💵 de la Biden-HARRIS campaña. "GenZ" y "Millennials" votarán más por mí también. Biden (81): NO! DNC: 😵‍💫⌚️ "Congress:" 😰 Trump (78): 👑 🇺🇲: 🪦 (con Proyecto 2025)

We are missing some crucial points here-key services and infrastructure are really struggling in most areas. The NIMBY attitude of today is no longer what it was, no longer just about views and quaint countryside-it's about roads, infrastructure, schools, traffic etc. Important issues for most people. Yes some house building needs to be done, but net migration needs to be far lower. Another important point here is there is no ombudsman for new house builds. The quality of these are often really bad with warranty companies in bed with developers. On a side note, really enjoy NM, but could you guys pronounce your TH's properly? Or is this an attempt to seem working class 😅😅

Ruritania?

Michael Walker: "I would be devastated if they built on the green land near me, they should build away from me, near other people, but the NiMbYS won't let them"

🤠🍋‍🟩

Solar farms? How efficient will they be when it rains?

Didn’t realise how simple this host is , build on farmland and do vertical farming when available ., this is stupidest thing ever

The Uk also isn't particularilly fertile. The amount we can produce, with the same amount of inputs, is far less than most of france, spain or Italy. Better that most people can own their own homes. Have modern infrastructure, to maximise productivity and therefore incomes. And with said higher incomes, import food from more productive regions of the globe. The Japanese model if you will. Then rewild and build on, a lot of the heavily subsidised farmland.

Micheal, you are plain wrong about using farm land as building plots, what about food security, your metropolitan, I'll informed viewpoint makes clear your overall ignorance on these matters. Given your reach and influence, your opinions convince me we're fucked. Just because you feel you're right does not make you correct! Belief based reasoning as opposed to objective, fact based, data driven planning are world's apart, your biases and prejudices are writ large in your discourse. At this point you are just acting as a differently flavoured propagandist. Disappointing!

Isn't England one of the most over-populated geographic areas on the planet ?