I keep hearing it said that we should not re-regulate private renting, or if we do then we need to be very careful about it, lest landlords disinvest. This would exacerbate supply issues in places like London, it is claimed. One policy type told me last week that restricting what landlords can do with their… [Read More]
Research Assistant, Centre for the Study of European Civilisation Salary: £25,000 Closing date for applications: 1pm on 21 December 2018 Civitas is looking for a research assistant to join the newly established Centre for the Study of European Civilisation. Essential A Bachelor’s degree, 2:I or above; A Master’s degree OR 2 years research experience post-graduation… [Read More]
David Fraser has recently published a new study of the crime problem, Licence to Kill: Britain’s Surrender to Violence. Based on over 30 years research into government sentencing policy and work in the criminal justice system, David Fraser’s book demonstrates that the State’s increased reliance on alternatives to imprisonment has allowed all categories of violent… [Read More]
The housing select committee’s September report on land value capture was groundbreaking. A cross-party group of MPs who had taken the trouble to investigate the workings of the 1961 Land Compensation Act in detail and at length found that the ‘hope value’ provisions did more harm than good and should be reformed. The government has… [Read More]
Public-sector housebuilding remains at some of the lowest levels of the past century and yet, as a new paper by academics Steve Wilcox and Peter Williams points out, government interventions in the housing market ‘are now on an unprecedented scale’. In a paper for the Chartered Institute of Housing this week, they count the ways… [Read More]
Sir Oliver Letwin’s proposals for speeding up build-out rates are ambitious in their intent but curiously fail to address a substantial difficulty that could ultimately prove their undoing. His final report was published alongside the Budget today. The ambition lies in a vision of a more muscular planning system in which local authorities are encouraged… [Read More]
I’m delighted to read in the newspapers that the Prime Minister’s former adviser, Will Tanner, who now runs the new Conservative think tank Onward, is proposing support for private sector tenants to buy the home they rent. Apparently the Treasury is interested in the idea and it could even be launched in the Budget later… [Read More]
Landbanking. Did ever a bit of jargon provoke such a range of passions as ‘landbanking’? The big developers’ annual reports are full of descriptions for investors about the size of their landbanks – so much as utter the word in their company though and they regard it as an affront to their dignity. Half the… [Read More]
When Theresa May announced the government’s latest planning reforms in March, one of her most strident criticisms was of ‘unscrupulous developers’ who ‘dodge their obligation to build homes local people can afford’. In her sights was the gaming of the planning system to negotiate down private-sector contributions to affordable housing as a condition of the… [Read More]
As much as the impact of Brexit on growth is the focus of debate at the moment, the UK’s disastrous productivity growth and persistently low levels of investment pose a much bigger on-going threat to our economy. Indeed, the IMF notes this week that ‘over the medium term, growth prospects [in the UK] will depend… [Read More]
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