Silence from the real experts!

Interesting to see the government has felt the necessity to separately issue the responses to the housebuilding market study working papers accompanying the CMA report published a few days ago. What caught my attention is the evidence they have overlooked. There are no landed estates responses in the ‘private management of public amenities on housing … Continue reading Silence from the real experts!

Housebuilding market: CMA report

At the end of last month the Competition and Markets Authority published their study Housebuilding market study. A thorough and rational analysis of the housebuilding market. For this reason worth reading. It also contains valuable, but not complete clues to explain why the house building industry is broken. Unfortunately, if the objective of the CMA … Continue reading Housebuilding market: CMA report

’D’ day on the horizon?

Maybe a Conservative government is going to scrap hope value? At least for development schemes that provide high public benefit, examples being affordable housing proposals and new education and health facilities. If they do, for the developers, planners and their armies of consultants, it will be ‘D’ day. Or as history suggests is more likely, … Continue reading ’D’ day on the horizon?

Working together

In The Times last Friday (16 February 2024) their correspondent Emma Duncan (Build houses where people actually want to live) was the first national journalist to correctly identify the key to solving the chronic housing crisis. She rightly said that “If the government is serious about solving this crisis, it should start talking to the … Continue reading Working together

Is there a plan?

Our Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak wrote an revealing Comment piece in The Times, Tuesday, 13 February 2024 about his government’s housing policy in England. His intentions may be good and his objectives seem to be worthy, but my goodness. His understanding of the reasons why 14 years of Conservative policy making have created an unaffordability … Continue reading Is there a plan?

Can brownfield sites help?

Michael Gove says he wants to force councils to accelerate brownfield development. I wish him well. Having spent a career trying to assemble brownfield sites in high demand areas like the Thames Valley, for both residential and commercial redevelopment, ie. regeneration of brownfield land, my opinion is that he will discover this solution to the … Continue reading Can brownfield sites help?

Spatial reality or planning waffle?

They call themselves POETS, or Planning Oxfordshire’s Environment and Transport Sustainability. A dozen former Oxfordshire planners, sustainability experts and one or two academics have launched an attack on the latest draft of the Oxford local plan, according to PLANNING 18 January 2024, by Samantha Eckford. These experts ought to know what they are talking about, … Continue reading Spatial reality or planning waffle?