For this week’s edition of ‘Nimby Watch’, we’re off to Scotland, where everyone is up in arms about pylons… Right then, where to this time? Picturesque Aberdeenshire, which is becoming a key part of efforts to secure a green new energy future for the UK. Sounds good to me. Who could object to energy independence, […]
Michael Gove was, without a doubt, the most able secretary of state produced by the last 14 years of Conservative government. This sounds like praise, and of course it is. But great ability is a two-edged sword. When an able individual sets themselves to good purposes, they can do great things, as Gove did at […]
The news from Gwynedd arrives heralded by a certain, perhaps premature, parochial, nationalist, triumphalism: house prices, it is proclaimed, have succumbed to the local council’s campaign against second homes, plummeting by a seemingly significant margin. To some eyes, this may appear a vindication of local prerogative, a victory for affordability wrested from the grasp of […]
For this week’s edition of ‘Nimby Watch’, we’re off to Shropshire, where plans are afoot for new homes near Telford… Where are we looking this time, then? We’re over in Lawley, which depending who you ask is either a suburb of Telford or a village a few miles away from it. And what’s being built? […]
Winslow, a market town in Buckinghamshire, will be connected to the national rail network for the first time in 57 years when the western stage of East West Rail opens later this year. With easy connections to well-paying jobs in Oxford and Milton Keynes, the new railway will improve the lives of the town’s residents. […]
‘Nimby Watch’ is back with a new author, and in this week’s edition we’re off to Camberwell in south-east London, where Sadiq Khan is trying to extend the Bakerloo line… Where are we this time, then? Burgess Park, Deptford, and a few other areas of south-east London not currently served by the underground. So, we’re […]
If you watched Peaky Blinders on Netflix, you might remember the charming Victorian village where Aunt Polly’s house was set. Those scenes were filmed in Port Sunlight, an iconic community near Liverpool inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. Built by Lever Brothers, the precursor to Unilever, it offered vernacular-style housing to soap factory workers. […]
Alongside CapX’s new weekly podcast The Capitalist, we’ll also be publishing a series of episodes, titled Despatch, which offer an audio version of some of our favourite pieces from the site. This week, it’s Reem Ibrahim’s analysis of the well-meaning but ‘pernicious’ Renters’ Rights Bill, which, she argues, is likely to make things worse for […]
With the cost of renting a property steadily going up, you probably wouldn’t expect the Government to introduce legislation that makes it more difficult to rent. But alas, the consequences of new laws are not always obvious. The Government has hailed the return of the Renters’ Rights Bill, which returned to Parliament yesterday, as the […]
Today marks 380 years since the Self-Denying Ordinance was unexpectedly introduced to the floor of the House of Commons by the MP Zouch Tate on 9 December 1644. Arguably, this reform was the key factor in enabling parliament to win the first and second Civil Wars against Charles I and then beat his son (Charles […]
The appeal of the Premier League’s Fantasy Football game lies in its simplicity. There are just a few basic rules – a maximum squad value and limits on the number of players from any one team and in each position. Beyond that, players can indulge their dreams of being the next Pep Guardiola, picking whatever […]
For this week’s edition of ‘Nimby Watch’, we’re off to the South West coast, where the locals want to stop a boatload of foreign electricity from coming ashore… Where oh where oh where? North Devon. Lovely place for a holiday. So’s Morocco. Sorry, what? All will become clear. It’s not houses this week, it’s a […]
Regular readers of CapX may be passingly familiar with development orders – I have mentioned them here once or twice. For those unfamiliar, here’s my previous summary: Set out in Section 59 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, development orders are instruments of extraordinary potential scope. Here are the two most crucial bits: […]
Here is the good news: the Conservatives will go into the next election with a clear appeal to younger voters. They will widen home ownership by liberalising planning restrictions to increase supply, thus making housing more affordable. In the recent Conservative leadership contest, this was the view of both Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. The […]
From the 18th to the early 20th centuries, Britain had the best transport infrastructure in the world. Some 1,100 companies laid out over 20,000 miles of tolled roads (‘turnpikes’), giving Britain the best road network in Europe. Some 400 miles of canals, also dug by private companies, linked up Britain’s natural river system to create […]
Housing politics in Britain tends to be predictable. Labour try to build more in Tory and Liberal Democrat-voting areas, while the Tories try to build more in London. Every so often, however, something unexpected happens. One of those events occurred this week, when the Labour Government announced a new system of ‘planning passports’. As reported, […]
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