Housing nerds who watched ‘Friends’ (ie, me and other millennials who read CapX) will probably remember that Monica’s apartment, and others in the series, are subject to rent controls. Ross (David Schwimmer) learns about the downsides of rent controls the hard way. After going through a messy breakup, Ross was unceremoniously turfed out of his […]
Since the 1980s, council tenants in England have enjoyed the right to buy their homes. When they do, councils are required to offer them a discount from what the properties would cost if they were sold on the private market. This reflects the fact that social tenants already have lifetime tenancies of the properties with […]
You can’t fault Labour’s commitment to hit the ground running when it comes to housebuilding, with the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, reiterating the pledge to build one and a half million new homes, followed by Angela Rayner’s speech last week outlining an overhaul of planning rules designed to help deliver that commitment. But the Conservative government […]
In what has been a week marred by tragedy in Southport and military escalation abroad, we’ve had little cause for optimism. But one story which could have lifted spirits ended up being quite the mixed bag. On Tuesday, the Government released the revised edition of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – the document which […]
The first tranche of Labour’s long-awaited housing reforms have arrived. They are a mixed bag. The package is probably a net improvement on the current system, but it is unclear that Labour are making the most of the immense political capital they have for fixing the housing shortage, Britain’s greatest problem. Here are the key […]
Our planning system isn’t working. England is on course to deliver fewer than 200,000 homes this year. The independent Centre for Cities reckons 442,000 homes per year is what’s needed to close the 4 million home backlog built up over seven decades of the Town and Country Planning Act. Today, Angela Rayner set out her […]
The new Chancellor’s commitment to building more homes we need is obviously to be welcomed. However, we must hope that she has learnt the lessons from our history of failed attempts at planning reform before she finds herself in a quagmire. It goes without saying that Britain faces one of the worst and longest-running housing […]
Local government financing is in a state of crisis. Six local authorities have declared bankruptcy since 2021 and more are expected to follow in the coming years. One of the biggest drivers of the crisis is the spiralling cost of providing temporary accommodation to homeless households. Temporary accommodation is designed to be just that; emergency […]
This is an edited version of remarks delivered by the author as part of Civic Future’s ‘The New Wild West’ summit. Should the state play a larger role in the UK economy? My answer is “no” – many problems that Britain faces are down to too much government action and too much of the wrong […]
Attacking landlords has become the great bipartisan cause in British politics. It is a convenient displacement activity. After all, the real culprits when it comes to high rents are the politicians themselves – for maintaining planning rules which restrict the housing supply. It doesn’t help matters that much of the media is willing to accept […]
One of the early winners in this election campaign has been the Yimby (Yes In My Backyard) movement, which advocates for more building to solve the housing crisis. Advocates for Yimbyism have succeeded in part because the housing crisis has become so severe that it forced its way into the national conversation. But another reason […]
Our housing situation is dire. Hard-working professionals are routinely forced to pay fortunes for faulty flats. The social ramifications of housing scarcity are appalling, with 145,000 children growing up in temporary accommodation. Today, Labour launches its manifesto, including a plan for housing based on a set of ‘golden rules’. Unfortunately, these plans are bound to […]
Last week, I wrote about how Labour’s plan for new towns – supposedly Sir Keir Starmer’s big-bang solution to the housing crisis – is unlikely to produce even a single one. There were several factors that went into why, but broadly it could be boiled down to two points. First, the proposals adopt an everything-bagel […]
Over the past few months, Labour has made a strategic choice to try and minimise the economic space between itself and the Conservatives. Rachel Reeves has pledged to match most of Jeremy Hunt’s spending plans, and her mission in the campaign seems to be reassuring right-leaning swing voters that they can trust Labour not to […]
In 2015, Benjamin Lee of The Guardian wrote an amusing piece about how some canny PR flack had spun his two-star review into gold. By carefully positioning it on a poster in the middle of a column of four-star reviews, some of which were partially obscured, it managed to give a very misleading impression without […]
Political arguments are often 80% about framing and vibes. A common rhetorical strategy in political debates is to present your own view as ‘the common-sense position’, the position that any fair-minded, reasonable person would adopt, while presenting your opponent as a deluded, wilfully blind ideologue. Rent controls are a good example. Opinion polls consistently show […]
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