A New Department for Land Economy

News that Gordon Brown is to host a Cabinet Meeting in the West Midlands on 8 September is to be welcomed. Might I suggest the newly refurbished Council Chamber at Worcestershire County Hall, if this has not already been put forward as a possible venue. I would also like to propose an agenda item for the meeting : a new Department for Land Economy.

For it seems to me that most economists have an inadequate understanding of land economy (planning, property markets etc) and most planners have a poor comprehension of economy.
As a starting point, I think we need a Centre for Land Economy in the West Midlands. Perhaps Vice Chancellor Green of Worcester University, and a Cambridge economics graduate (a University with one of the world's few departments of land economy) could help here.

A Government Department for Land Economy would, of course, need to be thoroughly "joined-up", bringing together regional, urban and rural development, regulation of the property and housing markets, land-based industries, and, of course, planning, for a start. Sustainable development and, particularly, regeneration would be central to the department's mission.

If all this sounds a bit "blue sky" might I suggest the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs's (DEFRA) Foresight Centre look into the proposal. As someone who regular does some "Horizon Scanning" herself (from Crookbarrow Hill next to Junction 7 of the M5), I can tell the boffins that they and their political masters need to come down to earth....and I can think of few more appropriate places than Worcestershire.