Publications
All Policy Exchange publications are free to download in .pdf format. You can also purchase hard copies of the majority of our reports – check each individual report page for details.
Housing & Planning Publications
Taxing Issues? Reducing housing demand or increasing housing supply
Policy ExchangeTaxing Issues? examines the barriers to home ownership, including the pros and cons of introducing new land and property taxes. The report argues that the best way to bring down the cost of home ownership and tackle market volatility is to scrap increases in property taxes, urging policymakers instead to focus on building 1.5 million new homes by 2020.
21st Century Retail Policy: Quality, choice, experience and convenience
Alex MortonThis report finds that Town Centre First, a policy intended to support the high street by limiting out-of-town shopping centres, has decreased competition between retailers, damaged the social fabric of communities and caused price rises of at least £1,000 a year for the average household. Town Centre First should be replaced with an ‘Access First’ policy, focussed on giving low income households access to social and retail hubs, but not restricting where these retail centres should be built.
A Right to Build: Local homes for local people
Alex MortonCouncils that fail to hit their own housing targets should have to release land to local people who want to design their own homes. The government could use this self-build model to ensure that councils hit their housebuilding targets, doubling the amount of new homes to over 200,000 by 2014 and giving the construction sector a much needed shot in the arm.
Create Streets
Alex MortonCreate Streets shows how demolishing high rise social housing blocks and replacing them with real streets made up of low rise flats and terraced housing would improve the lives of thousands of people who suffer from living in multi-storey housing.
Planning for Less: The impact of abolishing regional planning
Alex MortonPlanning for Less shows that councils are planning to build 272,720 fewer new homes since the abolition of regional planning. The report argues that rather than fighting councils the government should now work with them to ensure that they actually deliver the homes their targets propose.
Why Aren’t We Building Enough Attractive Homes? Myths, misunderstandings and solutions
Policy Exchange and Alex MortonWhy Aren’t We Building Enough Attractive Homes: Myths, misunderstandings and solutions shows how large developers are ‘playing’ an outdated planning system and fooling the government into potentially wasting taxpayers’ money propping up land prices. The report recommends wholesale changes to the planning system to end ‘land banking’, give local people planning control and get more good new homes built.
Ending Expensive Social Tenancies: Fairness, higher growth and more homes
Alex MortonSelling expensive social housing as it becomes vacant could create the largest social house building programme since the 1970s. The sales would raise £4.5 billion annually which could be used to build 80,000-170,000 new social homes a year and create 160,000-340,000 jobs a year in the construction industry.
Cities for Growth: Solutions to our planning problems
Alex MortonCities for Growth sets out how reforming planning laws and the development of new ‘Garden Cities’ can both solve our housing crisis and boost economic growth.
More Homes: Fewer Empty Buildings
Alex MortonMore Homes: Fewer Empty Buildings proposes that, as part of a strategy for growth, the government should reform the Use Classes Order to make it much easier to move buildings and land from Use Classes A (retail) and B (employment) to C3 (dwelling houses).
Planning Curses: How to deliver long term investment in infrastructure
Policy ExchangePlanning Curses shows how despite efforts to streamline planning, vital projects are not going ahead because of over-elaborate and unrealistic economic predictions.
