YIMBY wins around the world (September 2024)

by | Sep 16, 2024 | International

US reform successes

Recent research shows that 50 housing bills passed US state legislatures in the first half of 2024, compared to only 30 in the same time last year. In the preceding twelve months, 65 housing supply bills have been enacted. You can read more in this excellent report. Another example is the unanimous decision by the council in Columbus to legalize over 88,000 new homes.

New research on US zoning problems

Groundbreaking new research from Arpit Gupta and colleagues has used AI to build a database of US planning rules and how restrictive they are. They have made several fascinating findings, including:

  1. Most new homes in the US are built in ‘unincorporated areas’ that have no local government and no zoning.
  2. Zoning rules are restricting the density that can be built.
  3. Zoning rules are more restrictive in suburban areas, especially in the Northeast.

If you have a zoning system, it is critical to make sure you get one that permits more homes!

Links to a summary and the full report in this thread.

Green belt and other reform

On 30th July, the UK Government put out proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, making it easier for councils to review ‘green belt’ designations and creating a new category of ‘grey belt’ where building is more encouraged. You can read more and respond here. The deadline is 24th September!

There has been a big shift in the politics of the green belt – since the general election, more than half of green belt seats are now represented by Labour MPs. (Source)

Australia

A broad consensus of Australian economists supported planning reform and more public housing to address the housing crisis.

There’s a long way to go!

This chart from our recent joint paper with the Tony Blair Institute shows how recent decades have underperformed historic rates of building homes. We will continue to emphasize The Urgent Need to Build More Homes!

YIMBYism in the US!

And of course we couldn’t finish without mentioning the huge upswell in pro-housing views at national level in the US, including from Vice President Kamala Harris.