The primary objective of this blog, started in earnest in July 2022, is to promote an open market led solution to England’s housing crisis; one which is politically and spatially realistic. It must look ahead two generations. Rationing the supply of house building land was introduced in 1947, but the impact of regulatory control on the supply of land only began twenty years later. Since then controls, especially in high demand, above average growth areas, have incrementally increased. The consequence is house prices and rents, particularly where supply deficits are most acute, have reached unaffordable levels for new entrants.
How can we deliver the housing needed in these high demand areas with local support? Why is there passionate opposition to new housing, and what are the steps local councils can take to reverse this mind-set? What lessons can councils learn from long term, successful housing strategies by landed estates, that create lovable places and premium values? What lessons can the disbanded Commission for New Towns teach us about delivery: what will work and what will not?
The solution – we need to identify and deliver policies that produce housing solutions in local areas which residents welcome. It can be done. Using a two-step approach to remove the negative outcomes of the haphazard call for sites system and replacing it with historically tested place stewardship principles. Read my blog for more on this and my take on the political turmoil surrounding the issue.
Ian Campbell
