UK Planning Bureaucracy Discourages Economic Development

This story is about the difficulties major corporations like Pfizer and Ikea have faced in obtaining local planning permission to develop in parts of the UK. Local opposition to the siting of these companies has encouraged many of them to abandon plans to expand in the UK and locate elsewhere in Europe. As a result, the UK is losing out on economic growth to competing countries. It is also suggestted that the policy changes introduced by Labour government in this article would effectively drown out local opposition in favor of "national" interests. Local public participation or educational programs are clearly not on the agenda.

[Editor's note: Story summary written by Annie Cruz-Porter.]