NEW BLOG: Latest blog by Prof Geoff Meen & Prof Christine Whitehead tackles the contentious issue of land use planning. This is part of a series published ahead of the launch of their book, ‘Understanding Affordability: The Economics of Housing Markets’ housingevidence.ac.uk/affordability-…

Today the UK government has published the details of its “once in a generation” overhaul of England’s planning system. The proposed reforms confirm many of the fears I outlined here, and in some ways they are more concerning. THREAD: opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/…

Has the 'mini boom' in UK house prices missed flats? In London, the price of apartments has, well, flattened since the pandemic on.ft.com/3kn4C0h

The updated chart of London house prices (which in September were £19,339 or 4.1% higher than a year ago) & mortgage rates between January 2004 & September 2020. #ukhousing #london

Looking forward to joining this CaCHE event on delivering design value next week.

Thanks to more remote working, Cullinan Studio can welcome new members to their beautiful, canalside coworking space in Islington. Great opp esp for anybody looking to collaborate w other built environment organisations.

There is also the widely held view that SDLT needs scrapped entirely. As a transaction tax it creates frictions on moving in a era when housing needs change more often. In this case, a similar tax revenue needs raised by other means... on land? wealth?

I’ve seen quite a few articles making the case for a land value tax recently. All very well, but none I’ve seen are saying anything new or taking the debate forward in a meaningful way. Thread: voxeu.org/article/land-b…

We are very excited to be expanding our co-working hub at the Foundry – read more here: bit.ly/3na8l4o #coworkinghub #futureofwork #multidisciplinaryhub #postcovidworkspace

My column for House & Garden. Sorry, about houses and gardens, for The Times and The Sunday Times: thetimes.co.uk/article/7ff305…

“I’m really looking forward to a new buzz at our offices, and the chance for us all to learn from each other. We want the Foundry to be a place that better reflects the collaborations needed in the construction industry going forward.” Roddy Langmuir bit.ly/3na8l4o

Excellent short film c/o The Economist on why claims of long term benefits to owning vs renting are weak & correlate w neither economic growth nor stability. Good that it also picks up on the advantages of a more adaptable housing stock to labour markets youtu.be/kkVEt5tC2xU

Dr Sam Bruce on the core elements of community: “our research looked at community broadly and found three core ideas: connection, security, belonging.”

“The fact that house prices have been rising quickly over the last year makes the market more vulnerable to external shocks to the economy”CaCHE theconversation.com/house-prices-t…

Suburban living the worst for carbon emissions – new research theconversation.com/suburban-livin… via The Conversation

This has implications for housing designers: do small spaces contribute to fuel poverty by designing out the potential for appliances that make noise to run at nighttime, when electricity is cheaper? theconversation.com/electricity-pr… via The Conversation

'Local councils have the power to make the great places of tomorrow' - find out more in our new animation on why neighbourhood design quality matters and what can be done to make a difference 🌳🚴🏡 youtu.be/6GuHjgiB1HY

We need a new way of #TalkingAboutHousing. Our research out today shows how the public thinks about #housing, which mindsets create barriers to achieving better #HousingForAll & where the conversation should go next. Thrilled to be working with Joseph Rowntree Foundation & Nationwide Foundation on this

Housing practitioners should keep coming back to short, accessible blogs like this. Otherwise it’s easy to get distracted by supply-led arguments that produce hard-to-adjust housing in pursuit of volume: Meeting housing demand: only one side of the coin housingevidence.ac.uk/meeting-housin…

Much of neighbourhood walkability is about the one-mile (or km) walk. Since we don't fly, actual connectivity is key. Even if there’s something to walk to, & a sidewalk to walk on, how hard is it to walk there from here? Stop designing unwalkable ‘hoods. Via Sightline Institute Walk Score