Support for local housebuilding plummets since election May 20, 2025 Brits’ support for housebuilding in their local area has fallen since the general election in a risk to the government’s lofty construction goals, according to new data. Net support has dropped by 11 percentage points, with renters’ backing for new housing near where they live falling by 14 percentage points, according to new research by [...]
The West Midlands is leading the way on new housing May 20, 2025 The West Midlands is pioneering a new, collaborative approach to housing and infrastructure growth by uniting public and private sectors to unlock investment and accelerate development, says Richard Parker As leaders from across the UK’s built environment gather at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF), I want to share some early thinking [...]
Safe as houses? Landsec bets on build-to-rent May 16, 2025 Property investment group Land Securities – known as Landsec – has turned away from offices and towards housebuilding in a major pivot. It said long-term demographic trends made housing a better bet than the cyclical office market, which is set to slow from its current high growth rate as supply constraints ease The company’s chief [...]
Sadiq Khan’s green belt U-turn is an admission of failure on housing May 15, 2025 Sadiq Khan is spinning his plan to build on London’s green belt as a “radical change of approach”, but it’s nothing of the sort. It will have a very limited impact on housing starts during this mayoral term and may only add to the political heat around house building, says James Ford Margaret Thatcher famously [...]
Building on the green belt won’t solve London’s housing crisis May 13, 2025 The Mayor’s plan to release green belt land for development is a good start, but if we really want to fix London’s housing crisis we need to build more and higher in the centre, says Joe Hill London’s success isn’t inevitable. It’s based on people wanting to live and work here, and there being enough [...]
Rightmove: Lower mortgages and browsing Brits boost property portal May 9, 2025 Property platform Rightmove has benefitted from a more optimistic housing market as mortgage rates fall, with buyer demand and property listings both up. The FTSE100 company, which is home to over 80 per cent of all consumer time spent on UK property portals, said new property listings rose nine per cent in the first four [...]
To be the party of opportunity, Conservatives must be the party of YIMBYs May 7, 2025 Britain’s housing shortage is now so severe that even if we hit Labour’s now abandoned building target, it would still take half a century to close the gap, says Sir Simon Clarke Last night I was delighted to launch Conservative YIMBY (“Yes In My Back Yard”), a campaign group which aims to transform Conservative attitudes [...]
The non-dom exodus is harming London’s housing market May 2, 2025 Punitive taxes and onerous regulation on landlords are leading the wealthy to sell up and leave London – with knock-on effects at all levels of the housing market, says James Evans As City AM’s Editor-in-Chief recently pointed out, ‘The UK only has around 70,000 non-doms, and that number is falling fast. More than 11,000 millionaires, [...]
Kevin McCloud: Housebuilder ‘oligopoly’ needs urgent reform May 2, 2025 Britain’s housebuilding industry is a cartel-like oligopoly that needs root and branch reform in order for the UK is to build enough high-quality homes to solve its housing crisis, Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud has said. In a withering assessment the track record of major housebuilders, McCloud said the UK construction sector’s supply chain had [...]
Controversial tower opposed by Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Felicity Kendal rejected April 25, 2025 Plans for a 29-storey mixed-use tower at the southern end of Battersea Bridge have been unanimously rejected by Wandsworth Council. The 110-home Glassmill scheme was voted down at meeting of the authority’s planning committee on Thursday night. The decision follows months of local opposition to the project, with more than 2,000 objections from members of [...]