I wrote a shortish piece on estate demolition. I look at the economics of demolition, managed decline, class dynamics, and dodgy ballots. Give it a read if you get the chance 👇

Any natural monopoly or key utility should be delivered to the public pretty much at cost on a social tariff. Have all the costs of the various water companies universally gone up by 26%? 🤔

@gamecounsel Was an automated transaction that took a few seconds. Feels like I got mugged!

Wonder when the penny will finally drop that an economy built on rising asset prices and underpinned by wage stagnation is never going to deliver a rise in living standards for the public…

It really is all about the spec that developers build them to. We have the technology and advanced building practices to put up homes that are far superior to what most of us live in. Need to avoid falling into the trap of thinking we can’t do better.

This is going to happen a lot more. If all the productive capacity is in the private sector, what bargaining power do you actually have? Making the arbitrary 1.5m figure a key metric of this Govt’s success means this will likely get waved through if rejected and appealed.

Are we really expected to believe that an additional net increase of 80k units on a macro level is going to improve housing affordability? It’s disingenuous to give people false hope. There’s also a misnomer that there’s a sweet spot between profitability and affordability.

If hypothetically every UK employee was to receive a mandatory 15% payrise overnight, what do we think would happen to prices in the rental market? It would get gobbled up by landlords and any new supply would be priced accordingly. Hopefully the penny drops on price controls…

RT @PhinHarper: Claiming that the reason Britain hasn't built a reservoir for over 30 years is because of planning protections for bats and…

Has anyone actually done a calculation/projection on what happens if Lab hit the 1.5m target? As the number one issue is affordability you would surely want downward pressure on prices. Totally incoherent on the aim of the policy.

Rather than subsiding the HMO portfolio of some ‘entrepreneurial’ landlord who has cornered the local temporary accommodation market. That money isn’t gonna be seen again 👋

This is what happens to houses when landlords leave the market.

Truly recommend this from @_isaacrose It’s an excellent read and draws a fascinating historical context. Particularly relevant for anyone that’s been involved in estate demolition. It really unpicks the whole ‘place-making’ scam and the damage that has caused in Manchester.

that with a small cafe or restaurant and all the food hygiene/safety regs they have to comply with at all times in order to stay open. Working people, really? To get a gas safety certificate literally all you have to do is pay boiler person £100 once a year to do a check.

This is what happens when we introduce very basic tenants protections and landlords ‘leave the market’…

RT @fi_redress: Rentierism is the dominant economic model. It’s killing productivity. Asset owners are rinsing the wider productive economy…

Estate demolition is just terrible policy. It’s pernicious, unnecessary, and driven by ideology. Policymakers in City Hall need to move on from this broken model.

RT @abioconnor_: Vital new research from @Penny_Dropping which underlines the fallacy of “affordable” housing & the violence of many “urban…