Our Senior Research Fellow John Muellbauer outlines three concrete steps to reform the UK's broken planning system and housing market.
After the spectacular failure of Trussonomics, the new government urgently needs ways to enhance long-term growth. Meanwhile, there is a growing acceptance that the UK’s housing and planning markets are not fit for purpose. The owners of land have pocketed too high a proportion of benefits from the investment that others, especially taxpayers, made in infrastructure and other development. The resultant high land costs are part of the reason for the UK’s housing problems: lack of affordability gives us the highest average commuting times and least well-insulated homes among major northern European economies. All this must change.
For these reasons, writing for the Financial Times, our Senior Research Fellow John Muellbauer has set out three concrete and ‘growth-friendly’ reforms of the UK’s broken housing system.
