For the next instalment of our ‘From the Archive’ series, we’re republishing a paper from 1990 identifying Nimbyism as one of the major policy challenges of the day. It provides a depressing reminder that the Centre for Policy Studies has been talking about the iniquity of the planning system, the anachronism of the green belt […]
England has too many golf courses and too few homes. A quarter of Europe’s courses can be found here, occupying around 648,000 acres, or 2% of England’s land area. Scattered around the country, developing underused golf facilities could unlock swathes of new housing in and near towns and cities. Golf mania is over. As the […]
I like football and I am a big West Ham fan. Though not a season ticket holder, I go several times a year, and have even followed the team abroad on our recent European adventures to places as cool as Athens and as unexpected as Viborg (it’s a small town in Denmark). I say this […]
It’s not often you’ll read a defence of a blocked planning application or indeed the Mayor of London in CapX, yet here we are – driven to the unthinkable by the Stratford Sphere. For those blissfully unaware of the Sphere, it’s a proposed area and concert venue on the edge of the Olympic Park with […]
The housing crisis is one of the most important public policy challenges facing Britain today, and it is one that affects young people far more than most. That’s not to say that it is only young people who are affected. Our housing shortage leaves older Britons as well as younger ones living in smaller, less […]
It didn’t get as much attention as the headline measures on taxation, but Jeremy Hunt announced something in the Autumn Statement which could yet turn out to be what delivers the coup de grâce to the Conservative Party – a consultation on allowing houses to be converted into flats without the need for planning permission. […]
It’s widely agreed that responding to a Budget or Autumn Statement is one of the hardest jobs in politics. Not only does the Shadow Chancellor have to react to a whole new set of forecasts and fiscal policies, but also set out an alternative economic vision. So what can we expect from Rachel Reeves tomorrow? […]
There is a saying about economists – that if you put ten of them in a room, you will get 11 opinions. Consensus amongst economists is reserved only for the most obvious, well-evidenced truisms. Yet, in a survey of 41 American professors of economics, only one had anything positive to say about rent controls. So why […]
Last month, the Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, Robert Colvile, tweeted about a CPS publication from 1990 which was far ahead of its time: NIMBYism – The Disease And The Cure by Richard Ehrman. Although written in the early stages of (what we now call) Britain’s housing crisis, the author already demonstrated a […]
Since the Second World War, England has failed to build enough homes to meet the needs of the population, thanks to the creation of a discretionary planning system that makes it inordinately difficult to build new homes. Consequently, house prices have soared, pricing out individuals and families from moving to the places that best meet […]
It’s a tale as old as time. Home ownership is in rapid decline, while the number of properties available to rent has fallen too. The supply of rental properties is down by a third, pushing rents up even further for tenants who are already struggling. Despite the glaring supply-side issues, politicians decide that the best […]
The Liberal Democrats have often been called a Nimby party – not least on the pages of CapX – yet they have just backed the most ambitious housing target in history, thanks to my friends in the youth wing and the pro-coalition Liberal Reform. The original plan was to move to a more localised model […]
Last week, the government was defeated in the House of Lords, in its attempt to find a way through the nutrient neutrality issue. Due to the stage which the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill had reached by the time the government amendment was proposed, the defeat means the amendment cannot now form part of the […]
Over the last few weeks, nutrient neutrality has become one of the hottest topics in Westminster. Now, at least, Labour have shown their hand – and it’s fairly depressing stuff. Writing in The Times today, in their first announcement in their new briefs, Angela Rayner and Steve Reed said that Labour will be voting against the Government’s […]
When I was setting out to finally buy a flat of my own, my biggest red line was ‘no new-build properties’. The period property premium might be a sign of national decay, but it is real; you can take the high ceilings, large windows, and solid construction from my cold dead hands. The place in […]
Do proposed amendments to the Habitats Regulations reduce the current level of environmental protection? That is the charge made by the Chair of the Office of Environmental Protection [OEP], in a letter dated 30 August to the Secretaries of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Chair […]
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