In these divided and tumultuous times, it seems we can at least agree on something: the objectionable Bolshevism of housing targets. From the soon to be ex-Prime Minister and her Cabinet to the comment pages of the Guardian they are denounced as Stalinist and Leninist without Read more…
The few homes we do build today are an expression of the environment in which they are built. This is a political environment: shortly, it is based on what builders are allowed to do and what they are not. Contemporary housing, therefore, Read more…
This is a joint blog post from Joshan Parmar, chair of the Cambrige University Liberal Association and Sam Hudson, Treasurer of the Cambridge University Labour Club. They argue that progressives should support street votes to help us solve the housing Read more…
How demolition is a vital step in revitalizing our cities, reducing carbon emissions and solving the housing crisis The recent Guardian article ‘Demolition is an act of violence’ took an interesting view of construction. It lectures us that demolishing an Read more…
Good news for those who care about housing supply – a team of researchers have found that we can meet our housing target of 300,000 new builds a year, while staying within our carbon commitments. When modelling the UK’s current Read more…
Islington is a by-word for middle class aspiration. The area is relatively close to central London, without being as famously expensive as somewhere like, say, Kensington and Chelsea. Given that the average price of a terraced house in the borough Read more…
If you set out to build an institution that represented the interests of renters and first-time buyers, you could hardly do worse than our House of Commons. The vast majority of our 648 MPs owns at least one house. Almost Read more…
It is possible to destroy the aesthetic merit of a listed building by building something big enough and ugly enough next to it. We have all witnessed this happen; usually the damage was dealt several decades ago. A perfect example Read more…
Council tax brings in over £34 billion every year. It’s a vital source of revenue for public services – schools, social care, pest control, waste collection and much more. It’s also an increasingly arbitrary, highly regressive tax, levied most heavily Read more…
There are two main kinds of NIMBY. The first, the “classic NIMBY”, was lucky enough to buy a home before the year 2000 and believes that the youths of today need simply cut down on takeaway coffees and avocados in Read more…