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
Building More, Building Beautiful
Jack Airey, Sir Robin Wales and Sir Roger ScrutonThe housing crisis will only be solved if the developers of new homes place more emphasis on design and style to gain the support of existing communities, according to exclusive new polling for Policy Exchange.
Better Brownfield
Susan EmmettLondon needs to build 66,000 new homes a year. But with the population projected to grow by 70,000 a year up to 10.5 million by 2041, London also needs schools, shops, amenities and space for tens of thousands of new jobs. To prepare for and accommodate such levels of growth we must make the very best use of land in the capital. Yet despite the Mayoral drive to increase densities in London, too much space is wasted across the city on sites currently occupied by single-storey big box retail and industrial sheds. In this report we argue for the redevelopment of “Boxland” into genuinely mixed use neighbourhoods where people want to live.
A new settlement between government and independent housing associations
Chris WalkerPolicy 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
Chris WalkerThe 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
Chris WalkerThe 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
Chris WalkerThe 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
Chris WalkerOver 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
Chris WalkerRead Publication 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...
Housing and Intergenerational Fairness
Alex Morton and Owen CorriganThis report is Policy Exchange’s contribution to retirement housing provider Hanover’s Hanover@50 debate on the future of housing for older people. The report says reform of the planning system to encourage developers to build more homes, including bungalows and self build homes attractive to older people looking to downsize, is the fairer way of reducing the generational divide.
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.
