By Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, Alan W. Evans

This is the second report from Policy Exchange’s award-winning series on housing. Better Homes, Greener Cities shows that too few houses are built in Britain because local communities have no incentives to support new development.

A poll conducted for the report by Populus reveals that, despite rising incomes, 75% of respondents believe that a family home with a garden is less affordable than twenty years ago. Respondents overwhelmingly feel that planning should be controlled locally.

This publication makes a number of proposals, including allowing local authorities to retain more tax receipts arising from new developments to encourage them to attract new inhabitants to their areas; introducing a Social Cost Tariff worth £500,000 per hectare to compensate communities for the costs of development; and devolving all aspects of the planning system apart from minimum building targets to local authorities.