How a 1988 Paper Predicted Today's Housing Nightmare

IEA Podcast

In this episode of IEA Briefing, we explore why a 37-year-old paper on UK housing remains shockingly relevant today. Dr. Kristian Niemietz joins us to discuss the republishing of "No Room! No Room!" - Professor Alan Evans' 1988 analysis of Britain's housing crisis. Despite being written when multiplex cinemas were new and the Berlin Wall still stood, the paper's diagnosis of the UK's housing problems feels like it could have been written last week.

The discussion dives into Evans' key insights about land prices, planning permission, and local authority incentives - issues that have only gotten worse since the 1980s. Dr. Niemietz explains how the paper identified core problems like NIMBYism (before the term even existed in British English) and the green belt's impact on housing development. They also explore how the planning system's effect on land costs leads to compromises in building quality and design.

The conversation concludes by examining how the housing crisis has intensified, with current UK housing affordability ratios over 8 times median income in England and over 12 in some areas. While new factors like immigration now affect housing demand, the fundamental problems Evans identified in 1988 remain at the root of today's crisis. The discussion ends with a look at the growing YIMBY movement and whether there's hope for meaningful change in housing policy.

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