15-minute cities conspiracy theory becomes mainstream in UK

A wild interpretation of how 15-minute cities worked was discussed on UK radio this week in what has since ignited both fierce debate and mass confusion.

In an interview on BBC radio’s PM program Andrew Bowie, minister in the department for Energy Security and Net Zero, spun the popular conspiracy that 15-minute cities would infringe on people’s liberties.

Mr Bowie confused the presenter when he claimed he was responding to concerns that – in a 15-minute city – councils would have power to decide how often people could go to the shops.

“I think people are worried that this is an infringement on their liberties and on their freedoms, on their ability to choose where they go to access services, to access what they need, be that at shops et cetera at all the rest of it,” he said.

“We do not want local authorities dictating to people that they must not choose to access those services within 15 minutes of their house or however often they might need to access those services.”

His comments came after 15-minute cities were labelled as “sinister” by transport secretary Mark Harper at the Conservative Party conference earlier in the day.

“What is sinister, and what we shouldn’t tolerate is the idea that local councils can decide how often you go to the shops, and that they can ration who uses the roads and when, and that they police it all with CCTV,” he said.

The bizarre fact was that no suggestion has ever been made of any such surveillance.

Pedalling of the rogue and non-factual concept of 15-minute cities has come from members of society with a deep distrust for the government and fears about freedoms being restricted.

The unfounded claims prompted the government to step in and alleviate concerns, responding to a petition earlier in the year saying the concept of 15-minute cities was about promoting “walking, cycling and public transport use” and not restricting anyone’s movements.

The government said the “concept is not a national planning policy” but rather was part of a framework that aimed to make key services available in more efficient ways.

Despite the explanation, Mr Harper remained convinced 15-minute cities would allow local authorities to “police people’s lives”.

The Conservative Party has been broadly condemned for spinning the conspiracy theory, which was speculated to be linked with anti-vax, anti-lockdown group, Together Association.

The group’s co-founder in April described 15-minute cities as the “dungeons of state” control.

Mr Bowie, in the radio segment, appeared to share the concern.

“We’re not going to dictate to people that they must only access a service or go shopping within a 15 minute [radius],” he said, before the host pointed out no one was actually making that suggestion.

“I understand you, I hear you. But this really gets to the heart of where the Conservative Party is positioning itself about how it is trying to conduct a debate. Nobody is proposing that they’ll dictate whether you have to go within 15 minutes. They’re saying, wouldn’t it be nice if you could get to shop within 15 minutes … there is no argument over that,” he said.

“So why make the argument – pretend there’s an argument – about somebody dictating how often you can go to the shops?”

Mr Bowie remained insistent that people were concerned about their liberties being restricted before calling the suggestion that he was spreading a conspiracy theory “absolute nonsense”.

He argued it was important that concerns about potential policies were addressed and said, “that’s what we did” as a “responsible government” working in the national interest.

The host responded by stating his approach had contributed to the public becoming fearful about something that didn’t exist.

“It’s coming up in discussions, on forums online and we need, if people are concerned about it, we need to address those concerns,” Mr Bowie replied.