Want to build a new home? Forget it. Thinking about a loft extension? The local council will say no. Even chopping down a tree risks becoming a bureaucratic task.

The UK has created one of the most restrictive planning systems in the world, and one that has brought a great deal of development to a shuddering halt. The Telegraph has the story.

There are, however, some exceptions. You might soon be able to install a giant heat pump, and an electric car charger the size of a phone box, without requiring planning permission at all. But hold on this is crazy.

At the rate the rules are changing, we might soon have huge heat pumps with a single tiny apartment attached to them. It is getting to the point where it would be better to admit the technology does not work particularly well – and come up with a better way of heating our homes while reducing carbon emissions at the same time.

Michael Gove’s Department of Levelling Up is hardly noted for its relaxed, easy-going approach to building new stuff. It has even blocked the redevelopment of old department stores.

Still, it seems minded to relax the rules in a significant way for “green” products. Why?

It turns out that larger heat pumps can run at lower speeds, and therefore make less noise than models currently allowed.

Most technologies, from smartphones to laptops, get smaller and smaller as they enter the mass market. Heat pumps by contrast get bigger and bigger.

Sure, there may well be some advantages to larger pumps. And for the Government, and Mr Gove in particular, to take a more relaxed approach to planning rules is always welcome.

Yet here’s the problem: it is very hard to see where this is going to stop. If the current pumps are not big enough, perhaps we will soon need even bigger ones. Or perhaps two pumps will be required to generate the necessary level of warmth.

Read the full story here.