An unexpected increase in construction (from an extremely low base) has left building materials, especially bricks, in short supply, leading … Continue reading “Brick shortages come and go. Planning restrictions are the real obstacle to house building”

Developer:   Hello, I would like to apply for planning permission for a residential development just out of town. Planner:   Forget … Continue reading “Why brownfield development is overrated”

The last blog piece on so-called ‘second generation rent controls’ (SGRCs) argued that while these controls would not necessarily cause … Continue reading “Why ‘second generation rent controls’ are not a solution to the affordability crisis (Part 2): beware false comparisons”

Have you ever come across a lipogram? A lipogram is a somewhat eccentric literary technique: the art of writing a … Continue reading “Forget it, Owen Jones: only free-market policies can solve the cost-of-living crisis (Part 2)”

When you watch or listen to a political debate programme, and you hear someone saying something like ‘I am not … Continue reading “Abolish all green belts and ignore the nimbys”

Poverty campaign groups in the UK are heavily fixated on increasing welfare transfers and expanding social services. To organisations like … Continue reading “Towards a free-market anti-poverty strategy”

Apparently unaware of Ed Miliband’s recent announcements that a Labour government would cut the Housing Benefit bill by building more … Continue reading “Proper localism or proper centralism: a house divided cannot stand”

Every government retreats on some issue or other eventually, realising that the political cost outweighs the benefit. But for this … Continue reading “The planning reform that wasn’t: the coalition surrenders to the NIMBYs”

Nearly ten years ago, IEA author Mark Pennington argued that British land use planning policies were characterised by public choice … Continue reading “Housing policy in the public choice trap”