I'm a child of suburbia - like most of middle-class Britain. But the criticisms of suburbs outweigh the praises that suburbia is due. We never hear how suburban dwellers are more communal, more engaged with their neighbours and more friendly than those crammed into cities or enjoying a more bucolic lifestyle.
And this - albeit about America - is so true:
The abandonment of the suburban ideal represents a lethal affront to the interests and preferences of the majority, as well as their basic aspirations. The forced march towards densification and ever more constricted planning augurs not a return to old republican values, as some conservatives hope, but the transformation of America from a broadly based property-owning democracy into something that more clearly resembles feudalism.
We are reminded that 'Generation Rent' isn't caused just by the financial circumstances of the economy but by the deliberate and specific impact of planning regulations. People have to rent because they can't afford to buy, and they can't afford to buy because the planning system has, for four decades, prevented the building of enough new homes to meet demand.
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