Chris Walker
Head of Housing, Planning and Urban Policy
Chris Walker joined Policy Exchange in April 2014 as Head of Housing, Planning and Urban Policy.Chris worked previously as a civil servant for twelve years, in the Government Economic Service, working for a number of departments including the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for Work and Pensions, and HM Treasury. He has over five years experience working on housing policy and analysis, including affordable housing and housing markets. He also takes a strong interest in tax policy. He has an MSc in Economics from York University and a BA in Economics from Reading University.
Related News
"We are the builders": Osborne promises 400,000 new homes and vows to tackle Britain's "crisis in home ownership"
Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing & Planning, is quoted by the Daily Mail saying that George Osborne's Spending Review announcements are not enough to solve the housing crisis, and that further planning reform is needed to release more land for development.
A big reform of Britain's housing associations could hit the poor
Estimates by Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing & Planning, that greater freedoms for housing associations would allow them to build 100,000 houses a year are cited in The Economist.Related Publications
A new settlement between government and independent housing associations
Policy Exchange argues that Housing Associations should be given more freedoms to build so that the Government can meet its housing target.
The Homes London Needs: Part 3
The Homes London Needs: Part 3 makes a number of recommendations to improve London's housing crisis to the next Mayor of London. These include: rewriting the London Housing Strategy and the London Plan, and building on brownfield sites and post-war estates.
The Homes London Needs: Part 2
The Homes London Needs: Part 2 explores changing the way some commercial land is used, looking especially at underused (surplus) private industrial land, public land and other brownfield land.
The Homes London Needs: Part 1
The Homes London Needs: Part 1 suggests 50,000 new homes need to be built every year in order to accommodate London's growing population and address the current housing shortage. Recommendations include shifting the balance of land use in our capital from commercial (industrial) use to residential.
Garden Villages: Empowering localism to solve the housing crisis
Over one million new homes could be built over the next decade if each of the 353 councils in England built just one garden village of 3,000 new houses. Garden Villages shows how a future government can overcome local opposition to development by devolving powers to set up new garden villages from Whitehall to councils.
Freeing Housing Associations: Better financing, more homes
Housing associations are being stifled by unnecessary red tape that prevents them from building 100,000 new homes a year – a third of the total housing supply needed to keep up with demand. England’s 1,500 housing associations are currently bound by multiple rules and regulations which prevent them from choosing their own social tenants. This leads to a situation where some of the most anti-social tenants are effectively “dumped” on […]Related Blogs
House building in the North
Policy Exchange's Housing and Planning Unit examines the importance of house building to the 'Northern Powerhouse'.
The local support we found for the garden villages Britain needs
Christopher Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing, Planning and Urban Policy, summarises the growing support for his proposals in the report Garden Villages, and through his survey found local authorities to be in favour.
Garden villages could help solve the housing crisis and empower local communities
Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing & Planning, sets out the case for constructing a new series of 'garden villages' in England in order to help tackle the housing crisis.
Additional Policy Exchange analysis of Summer Budget 2015
Policy Exchange takes a more detailed look at the Summer Budget, including: the impact of the Living Wage; the reduced pace of departmental spending cuts; the fundamental shift in welfare policy; what awaits Housing Associations; and the impact of changes to energy levies.
The government’s right-to-buy targets are achievable – if the politics are possible
Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing & Planning, examines the feasibility of the government's one-for-one replacement pledge on expensive social houses sold to fund new affordable homes. Chris points out that the numbers add up, although it remains to be seen whether replacements will occur at the national, local or regional level.
Think of a number
Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing & Planning, looks at the various numbers put around for how many new affordable homes need to built a year. Chris argues that, accepting the 240,000 new homes a year needed as set out in the Barker Review, that 40,000 of those new homes should be affordable.
Housing is key to a Conservative vision for working people
Chris Walker, Head of Housing and Planning, discusses the merits of the Conservatives’ Right to Buy policy, explains that policies promoting home ownership should apply to people from all income brackets, and argues that the Right to Buy policy will increase the nation’s overall housing supply.
The public supports selling off most expensive council properties
Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing & Planning, examines the results of polling commissioned by Policy Exchange on how far the public support the Conservatives' proposed plans to force councils to sell off expensive social housing and use the proceeds to build more affordable homes.
Budget 2015: Policy Exchange Analysis
Policy Exchange responds to announcements in Budget 2015 in the areas of government spending, capital ownership, housing and energy policy.
Ramp up the number of market homes built to deal with the housing crisis
Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing & Planning, sets out why housing associations are key to helpin solve the housing crisis. Already delivering nearly half the new homes being built each year - and almost all of the social homes - giving them a shot in the arm by enabling them to build more market homes would boost the number of homes being built each year.
Chris Walker: How to free housing associations to build more homes
To mark the release of our latest report, Freeing Housing Associations, Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing and Planning, sets out how numerous rules and regulations are hindering housing associations from doubling the number of new homes they build each year from 50,000 to 100,000.
On housing, the ConHome manifesto offers the right diagnosis – but not all of the right answers
Chris Walker, Policy Exchange's Head of Housing and Planning, provides a critique of the housing section of ConservativeHome's recently published manifesto. Chris backs the manifesto’s diagnosis that Britain’s housing crisis is one of affordability, but argues that increasing housing supply is the only way to tackle this.