The scale of the housing crisis is sobering. Britain has the worst housing shortage of any major developed nation. Decades of undersupply have contributed to house prices and rents skyrocketing out of reach. In 1997, the average home cost about 3.5 times the average income. As of 2024, an aspiring buyer must devote nearly eight years’ worth of […]
The UK subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB UK) is insolvent. That means there will be losses. But if the Bank of England chooses the wrong course, those losses will be far greater than they need to be – causing damage to jobs, human welfare, innovation, and UK taxpayers. Many UK commentators have not yet […]
Liz Truss is absolutely right: growth is the only way to enable better jobs and public services, to let people live with dignity, and to ensure that our children are better off than we are. She is also right that growth is possible. There are smart ways to deliver what the Government wants quickly, if […]
In light of history, it is a bold – some might say foolhardy – claim about a new Housing Secretary that they could substantially improve the planning system. But that seems to hold for Simon Clarke. In 2020, as a minister at the same department, he spoke up for a ‘clear, unashamedly ambitious strategy for […]
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case faces scathing criticism in Sue Gray’s ‘Partygate’ report. If he’s keen to show his worth to the Prime Minister, Case could start by improving the civil service, whose so-called ‘Rolls-Royce’ procedures would sorely benefit from an overhaul. That might help with ministers’ aim to cut headcount by a fifth to get […]
Among the slew of misinformed articles about the Queen’s Speech and ‘street votes’ this morning, we can discern a kernel of truth. Over the past few years, an enormous cross-party list of well-informed figures have called for trials of the policy and, finally, the Government has agreed. We should welcome that decision. It means that […]
Britain needs more homes. This is such a commonplace that I have doubtless started articles with that four word sentence before. But although this has been widely accepted as a commonplace for years – decades even – Britain still needs more homes. I believe this is because policymakers have not found policies that deliver new […]
We have one of the most centralised systems of government in the world. We also have one of the worst housing shortages. This is no coincidence. Some local councils are, in theory, sitting on fabulous housing wealth – but needless regulation, endless obligations and pointless Treasury rules, mean they are unable to access it. Islington, […]
Rishi Sunak may be agonising about raising taxes to ‘level up’. But that is a false choice, because it omits the magic possible ingredient: growth. And one of the most powerful ways to enable more growth is to permit more development where high prices, driven by demand, are screaming for it. A new paper from […]
Last week the Government announced that it was reconsidering its planning reforms; that it would include proposals for street plans to give residents more power to allow development; and that it had fired the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, and replaced him with Michael Gove. As he reshapes the Government’s agenda, Mr Gove should consider an […]
An astonishing chorus of support, including yesterday’s Sunday Times, has already greeted Dr Samuel Hughes’s proposal on mansard roof extensions. He suggests that we revive the fine Georgian and Victorian tradition of upward extension of historic terraced houses by adding mansard roofs in keeping with the rest of the building. Support for the report ranges […]
Housing policy is often seen as a tug of war. We can build more homes to make them more affordable, or we can make homeowners happier by limiting supply. This is mistaken: building homes can add so much value that change can be win-win for nearly everyone. But some object that homeowners will never vote […]
Today’s news that house prices have risen 10.9 % since a year ago confirms estate agent tales of a hot market. As the economy reboots thanks to vaccines and the end of social restrictions, the exuberance will likely continue for a while. Predicting the future is hard, except in UK house prices. They have fluctuated […]
The Government has announced today that it will move much of the proposed new housing targets from rural areas to existing cities, encouraging more use of brownfield land and heeding the complaints of the 80 Conservative MPs concerned about a wave of new houses in their constituencies. Cries of relief are echoing around the Tory […]
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has today declared that the Ministry of Housing (MHCLG) should “ditch the false promises instead of serially ditched housing policies”. They also condemn the “cycle of policy invention, abandonment and reinvention, stringing expectant young people along for years”, “wasting time and resources” on housing policies that “come to nothing”. The Committee […]
Emma and Akin spent all their savings and took out an enormous mortgage to buy their first home, a three bedroom semi-detached house. She is a consultant, he a lawyer. And yet just five years after buying it, they now live in a bigger house, mortgage free. Louise lived next door. Her husband passed away […]
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has just tantalisingly announced a “radical” set of reforms to our “outdated and cumbersome planning system”. His diagnosis will strike a chord with anyone who has tried to build something, and with economic historians who think fixing the planning system will raise GDP by 20%. Reform is welcome and long overdue, […]
The Government is reportedly planning to set up ‘development corporations’ with the power to override local councils and move to a zonal planning system, so what you can build is set out by clear rules in advance. The Green Belt will, however, remain untouched. I welcome any reform to get more good homes built. Development […]
The English planning system has defeated decades of ambitious reformers. That is because they all misunderstood what it does: they thought it was a system for planning. The mistake is understandable, because that is what the system was invented to do. It was designed to decant population out of major cities into the new towns […]
We will get through this crisis, albeit at a far higher human and economic cost than necessary. We will prepare better for future pandemics. It need not cost much, if we do it in advance. But the biggest risk now is failing to address the fundamental reason why the virus hit us so badly. Partly […]
