Build, Baby, Build: How to make development popular June 20, 2024 Until the British public have much greater confidence that development will improve, rather than degrade lives, then the politics of planning will remain brutal, says David Milner Believe it or not but just two per cent of British people trust developers to make existing places better. And seven per cent trust planners. Do not adjust [...]
Build, Baby, Build: Gen Z have been radicalised by the housing crisis June 20, 2024 Young people are at the sharp end of Britain’s failure to build – and it’s not just turning them against a government that’s let them down, but against democracy itself, says Reem Ibrahim The housing crisis isn’t just unfair on young people, it’s making us feel that the political system is failing. The Centre for [...]
Build, Baby, Build: Will Labour be radical enough? June 20, 2024 Labour stands to win a whole host of rural and suburban seats and Starmer could face a battle with his own MPs to meet his housing targets. Yet the muddled thinking on display in his manifesto does not offer much reassurance that he’s prepared for the fight, says Will Cooling It is striking that as [...]
Campaign cock-up of the week: The candidates who can’t stop embarrassing themselves June 20, 2024 In this column, former No 10 advisor Giles Kenningham analyses the worst comms screw-ups of the election campaign. So what took the prize for the worst PR gaffe this week?
The Notebook: The point of non-executive directors? Common sense June 19, 2024 Neil Bennett takes the notebook pen to talk about common sense, Dominic Grieve and his own idea for national service.
Build, Baby, Build: Why this election will change the politics of housing June 19, 2024 There’s good reasons to be optimistic that the next government will finally get a grip on the housing crisis. First, all parties have made manifesto commitments on building targets. Second, Labour voters are much more positively disposed to development, argues Shreya Nanda The housing crisis is a key issue facing the country at this election. [...]
Build, Baby,Build: Yimbys are London’s future June 19, 2024 Despite a few naysayers, all the evidence suggests London is the most likely part of the country to say “yes in my backyard!” The next government must ignore the noisy minority and listen to the voices of progress, says John Myers London is the most Yimby part of the country, with seven of its boroughs [...]
Build, Baby, Build: The rental market and the rise of the DFL (that’s down from London) June 19, 2024 A rental market that drains bank balances and instils constant dread of eviction is driving people away from London. The capital can’t survive unless it can sustain its young workers, says Morgan Jones I lived in London for the best part of a decade, and for most of that time assumed that I probably always [...]
Cries of a ‘supermajority’ won’t have voters flocking to the Tories June 19, 2024 Voters are not stupid, and rarely appreciate being treated as such. Nor do they like being blamed for something that isn’t their fault. As such, the Conservative party’s vocal warnings about the perils of a Labour ‘supermajority’ do not necessarily strike us as a compelling political narrative. That is not to say that opposition isn’t [...]
Make tax boring again! June 18, 2024 There’s a smooth inverse correlation between how likely a party is to become the next government and the radicalism of its manifesto tax plans, says Tim Sarson “I suppose I ought to write something about tax in the manifestos,” I thought to myself. It would be odd not to in the week directly after the [...]