YIMBY
Alliance
Better housing, together
WHAT IS A YIMBY?
We’re YIMBYs: we believe that everyone deserves a high quality, safe and affordable place to live. That means we want to see better places and more homes built with the support of local communities. YIMBY stands for “Yes in my back yard”: we support more high-quality homes near us.
five ways we can build more homes
ESTATE RENEWAL
Expand and encourage London’s successful residential ballots to renew ageing council estates, improving our social homes and adding more high-quality homes.
UPWARD EXTENSIONS
Make it easy to add one or two extra storeys to existing buildings in keeping with existing vernacular, enabling more bedrooms for growing families or even creating new flats without using more land.
STREET VOTES
Let a street’s residents set a street plan for their own street that includes design rules and, following a democratic vote, allow matching extensions or new homes to be built quickly.
GREATER CAMBRIDGE
Build more homes and improve affordability in one of the UK’s most productive cities to meet the high demand from workers and high-growth businesses.
RESIDENTIAL ANNEXES
Build infill homes in existing neighbourhoods by allowing homeowners to build residential annexes (granny flats) with strict rules on design and quality.
News
Attlee’s secret weapon to build homes: zoning
Special Development Orders in the Town and Country Planning Act not only show zoning of the past but also look to the potential of the future. John Myers writing in Red Brick Block When people speak of planning, England typically emerges as a global anomaly in two...
Auckland upzones, again: an update from New Zealand
This is a guest post from Marko Garlick. Marko is a lawyer from New Zealand. He was a director on a pro-housing campaign which led to the widespread upzoning of Wellington in May 2024. Note that Marko sits on an expert advisory group that advises the New Zealand...
The biodiversity bottleneck
Image: a disused that does little for biodiversity. Source: Wikimedia Commons This is a guest post from Alfie Robinson. Alfie is a historian and heritage consultant operating across England, with a keen interest in policy issues. You can find Alfie on LinkedIn or find...
Reform planning to build more social homes
Social homes are a crucial component of the UK’s housing mix. They are a vital tool in addressing the housing crisis and ensuring everyone can have a safe place to live. There are over 1.2 million people on local authority housing waiting lists, and many more who...
YIMBY wins around the world (September 2024)
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...
New Report: the Urgent Need to Build More Homes
UK housing is at a crisis point. Skyrocketing costs, inadequate supply, and misaligned incentives have created a perfect storm that impacts every aspect of our society - from individual aspiration to national economic growth. The Government has won a landslide...
Location matters: price per square metre in England and Wales
It’s obvious that the price of a home varies massively from place to place, but simply comparing the average cost of properties sold can hide some major differences - particularly in the size of each home. The average cost of a home in London is £520,000 whilst in the...
YIMBY wins around the world
With a new Government that is extremely focused on building more homes, it seems a good time to revive our regular update on YIMBY successes around the world, from New Zealand to California. ADUs Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are small, normally single storey, homes...
Fast wins for more homes: how Labour can champion infill development
Kane Emerson writing in Red Brick Blog The housing crisis remains one of the most pressing issues facing Britain today. With homebuilding at crisis levels, numbers of households in temporary accommodation rising, and young people struggling to get on the property...
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