IEA Featured Housing and Planning

“The Chancellor’s announcements on housing miss the point", warns the IEA's Head of Poltiical Economy, Dr Kristian Niemietz. Quoted by the Yorkshire Evening Post, Kristian advised that "the crucial bottleneck of the housing market is land supply: we are simply not releasing enough land for housing development." Read the full article here.... Continue reading

As economist Friedrich Hayek said, there will always be gaps in our knowledge when making policy. This is why we should always consider the possible consequences of any decision — both intended and unintended. Writing for City AM, the IEA's Academic and Research Director Syed Kamall argues that while "imposing rent controls may make the ... Continue reading

Responding to Sadiq Khan's rent control pledge, the IEA's Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz said: “Rent controls have never worked anywhere. They do not just fail to solve the problem they are intended to solve; they also create new ones of their own." Kristian added: “This is one of the very few issues ... Continue reading

Quoted by the Independent, the IEA's Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz said: “Rent controls have never worked anywhere. They do not just fail to solve the problem they are intended to solve; they also create new ones of their own. “If Sadiq Khan had any interest in solving London’s housing crisis, he would ... Continue reading

The UK is in the grip of a housing crisis that can most easily be solved by liberalising the planning system and building more homes, but can that be done in a small-c conservative way, asks Professor Philip Booth, Senior Academic Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Writing for ConservativeHome, Philip argues that allowing ... Continue reading

Last year, councils across the UK doubled down on recent trends and spent around £232m buying struggling shopping centres, accounting for 36 per cent of all shopping centre deals according to new data. However, the IEA's Research Fellow, Professor Len Shackleton, said: “Councils should focus their energies on working to reform planning regulations to allow ... Continue reading

The Government has today announced a new programme, First Homes, which will give first time buyers a whopping 30% discount on the price of a new home. But as Head of Communications Emma Revell argues in an article for CapX, the move - like the Help to Buy Scheme - is likely to have a ... Continue reading

"If individual socialist policies are so popular, why is a socialist platform not a massive vote winner?" asks the IEA's Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz. "It’s as if somebody told you they love bacon, beans, sausage, fried egg and toast, but then roundly rejected the offer of an English breakfast" Writing for 1828, ... Continue reading