<b><b>John Stewart has found a remarkable consensus within the housebuilding industry about what must be done to reform the planning system.</b></b><br><b>In the past few months I have listened to many hours of discussion, and read numerous papers outlining the failures of the planning system and proposals for reform. Fears the industry would not be able to get its act together have proved unfounded. On the contrary, a remarkably clear consensus has emerged, not just on the planning system&amp;’s failings, but on what must be done.</b><br><b>The message is simple: we need radical improvements, not radical reform. </b><br> Underlying every discussion is a near-unanimous belief that many of the Green Paper&amp;’s major proposals will not work because they offer bureaucratic solutions to political problems. The current system is failing not because its structures are inherently flawed, but because those responsible for running it either do not want it to work, or are incapable of making it work.<p></p><p>There are political failures at every level: central government is impotent when it comes to enforcing its policies; regional planning bodies in the south are not prepared to play their proper strategic role, while those in the north often have unrealistic expectations about regeneration prospects; and …