Housing & Planning
Latest Housing & Planning Publications
A Call for a Tall Buildings Policy
Ike IjehAs part of Policy Exchange’s Building Beautiful programme, new polling, in one of the most extensive surveys in years, has revealed the widespread public concern about the impact tall buildings have had on the heritage, character and appearance of London. The survey showed that an overwhelming majority (71%) believe tall buildings should not be allowed to interfere with historic views, with 70% believing they should fit in with their surroundings.
Place Matters
Samuel HughesPlace matters profoundly to people. We invest more resources in our homes than in anything else, and by some measures we spend more time gardening than we do on any other pastime. This is no less true of our shared home. Protecting the countryside from suburban sprawl has substantial costs in terms of foregone economic growth, but green belts are widely supported, and were introduced only after a huge grassroots campaign for them.
Strong Suburbs
Samuel Hughes and Ben SouthwoodBritain needs more housing. But, so often, local residents justifiably believe that new housing in their area means a loss of public goods and amenities for them. This has led to a zero sum struggle where the debate is over who ought to be a winner and who ought to be a loser. Policy Exchange’s new paper Strong Suburbs cuts through that false dichotomy, providing a mechanism for local residents to benefit from, and control, new development.
Latest Housing & Planning Blogs
We’re seeing a shift under Gove in housing policy from quantity to quality
There are very few national crises where there is a political incentive for them to be both solved and sustained – but housing, unfortunately is one. The reasons for wishing to solve the housing crisis are obvious: lack of housing supply and chronic unaffordability in London and the south east, oversupply and depressed construction activity in the North, a generation of young people locked out of the housing market, spiralling rents and mortgages claiming a disproportionate portion of household incomes and contracting consumer spending and all the damaging social and electoral consequences therein.
The Queen’s Speech and Housing: Will Street Votes solve the Housing Crisis?
Housing has rarely enjoyed as high a political profile as it does today. A combination of the housing crisis, the abandoned planning bill, the government’s flagship levelling-up programme and it being led by one of the highest profile Cabinet Ministers Michael Gove as well as a slew of recent Tory electoral punishments in which housing was thought to have played a central role have all ensured that housing is now a major part of the government’s legislative infrastructure. So it assumed a pivotal role in this week’s Queen’s Speech, ironically delivered for the first time by a Prince of Wales who himself has had a profound impact on the UK’s architecture and urban development landscape over the past forty years.
Will we celebrate our Elizabethan architecture?
This year is the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s accession. What defined the architecture of Elizabeth II’s reign and what chance does it have of becoming a revered historic style of the future?
Since the Norman Conquest and with the singular exception of the Middle Ages, the stylistic classification of British architecture has always been inexorably linked to our monarchs or their dynasties: Norman, Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Stuart, Georgian, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian.
Latest Housing & Planning News
Policy Exchange sets out major planning reforms
A major new Policy Exchange report has called for a complete overhaul of the planning system by the Government. The report was covered in The Times whose article said Policy Exchange’s proposals were being “seriously looked at” by the No 10 policy unit. It was also featured in The Sun, ConservativeHome and on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Boris Johnson sets out the vision for his Premiership
Boris Johnson set out his vision for the United Kingdom on the steps of Downing Street yesterday – in the course of which he embraced many of the ideas championed by Policy Exchange in our series of policy proposals for the next Prime Minister.
Building Beautiful Places puts Prince’s vision into practice
A day after HRH the Prince of Wales issued a call for action for “the creation and regeneration of genuinely beautiful places” – in a report that cited our research five times – Policy Exchange published a report that puts the Prince’s vision into practice to help solve the housing crisis.
Latest Housing & Planning Events
Upcoming Events
-
Tuesday, 20 July, 2021
13:30 - 14:30
‘Building Beautiful Places’ with Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Nicholas Boys Smith Chair of Transition Board, Office for Place and Director, Create Streets and Joanna Averley Chief Planner, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. With a Q&A Chaired by Dean Godson, Director, Policy Exchange.
-
Thursday, 13 June, 2019
14:00 - 15:00
With Gillian Keegan MP, Sir Oliver Letwin MP
Venue: Policy Exchange
Address:
-
Monday, 3 June, 2019
9:00 - 10:00
Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP gave a speech at Policy Exchange sharing ideas on how to cultivate stronger communities and help people onto the housing ladder, including the possibility of drawing from pension pots for a deposit.
-
Thursday, 25 April, 2019
13:00 - 14:00
A panel discussion to consider whether the Government should support a modern generation of New Towns.
-
Tuesday, 2 April, 2019
13:30 - 14:30
How can more people be provided a beautiful place to call home? Pioneered by the work of John Ruskin, British Socialists have long had a vision for answering this question. In this panel debate we asked what that vision is today – and how beauty can be for the many, not the few.
-
Monday, 19 November, 2018
18:00 - 20:30
Architects should “stop being so defensive” and try to design houses that turn Nimbys into Slimbys (“something lovely in my backyard”), said Kit Malthouse MP, Housing Minister, at our Building More, Building Beautiful Conference – which brought together architects, planners, housebuilders politicians and journalists to discuss design and style in housebuilding. He praised Policy Exchange for “seizing the zeitgeist yet again”.
-
Wednesday, 14 November, 2018
18:00 - 19:30
The Inaugural Colin Amery Memorial Lecture on “The Fabric of the City” delivered by Sir Roger Scruton.
-
Thursday, 1 November, 2018
12:30 - 14:00
As part of Building Beautiful Month, the Syrian architect and author Marwa Al-Sabouni spoke at Policy Exchange on “The Loss of Home”. Marwa appeared in conversation with Sir Roger Scruton and was introduced by Tom Tugendhat MP.
-
Monday, 2 July, 2018
9:00 - 10:30
The new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government set out his priorities for making the housing market work. In his first speech on housing Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP outlined his vision for strengthening communities and building the homes Britain needs.
-
Thursday, 7 September, 2017
18:00 - 19:30
A discussion with John Godfrey (Former Director of Policy at No 10), Fraser Nelson (Editor of the Spectator), Terrie Alafat (The Chartered Institute of Housing), Phillip Barnes (Barratt Developments Plc), and Susan Emmett (Head of Policy Exchange’s Housing Unit).
Venue: Institute of Mechanical Engineers
Address:
