Blog
The draft London Plan: what has changed for building homes
Consultation closes 15 October 2026. We will release a model consultation response that you can use to help you respond if you wish. The draft new London Plan is the first London-wide plan in a generation that removes more barriers to homebuilding than it adds. The...
How focusing new housing on urban centres improves affordability
Many benefits of densifying urban centres are intuitive: better connectivity for workers, access to local amenities, more people using sustainable public transport. The list goes on. New evidence from Cambridge, Massachusetts shows that prioritising urban areas for...
Why gold-plating harms the environment
Birds-eye view of the bat tunnel, Google Earth The £100 million HS2 bat tunnel has become the go-to example of gold-plated standards driving exorbitant costs for public infrastructure. But there's an environmental consequence that's so far gone unnoticed: the sheer...
Land readjustment: a new devolved power for urban regeneration
Many countries have a tool to acquire land to deliver the new homes, public transport, and community infrastructure that our cities and towns need. But Britain doesn’t use it, yet. Check out the first post in our series of upcoming pieces on land readjustment: a new...
The path to higher living standards runs through Cambridge
The Government has announced promising plans that could transform one of Britain's most unaffordable cities: thousands of new homes for working families, improved public transport to cut commuting times, and many new job opportunities. And you have the chance to help...
Upward extensions: making our cities fit for families
London’s housing crisis is pricing out families. The sky-high cost of space means that many Londoners face a tough question: if you want to have children, what do you sacrifice? Do you try to fit your family into a small home, or do you say goodbye to the community...
How much space can you afford to buy?
The cost of living is often discussed as a question of energy prices, groceries, and wages. But there is an even more fundamental driver persistently pushing up costs for families across Britain: housing costs. The average house now costs eight times more than the...
How much space can you afford to rent?
A map of rent per square metre for renters in England and Wales If you rent, you probably don’t think in square metres. You think about how many bedrooms and space you can actually get for your monthly budget. Take £1,500 a month. In parts of the North East or Wales,...
The promise of suburban renewal
The Government has made significant progress in its first year of streamlining the planning process and has announced three new towns to be initiated during this Parliament. The goals are simple: build new homes for workers and grow the economy. One effective way to...
The cause of the affordability crisis
Britain’s housing crisis is, at root, a shortage in the places people need to live. That is why prices sit far above what it costs to build, why young people delay forming households, and why rents are so high. Tax tweaks could free up some extra homes, but they...