My colleague @mauricelange.bsky.social on why @london.gov.uk should intervene to make sure Crews Hill new town goes ahead www.centreforcities.org/blog/the-lon...

Will the new towns programme fall at its first major hurdle? I sincerely hope not! At Centre for Cities we've done a lot of thinking about where it makes sense for public sector intervention to get large-scale building happening, and Crews Hill ticks all the boxes as far as we can see.

I had a lot of fun making the graphics for this one! As you can see, we identify a clear post-war 'collar' (blues) around the city centres of cities like Manchester and Birmingham This matters because... (chart below)

@mauricelange.bsky.social is one of the speakers - going into the details of how Croydon allowed anyone to convert houses into flats, and where else a similar scheme woudl work to increase amount of housing.

The final Land Talks of the season is the week after next! The full lineup of speakers is up, and is too varied to compress into this post. Everything from co-ops and buyouts to freeing planning and land-value capture. Get your ticket here, if you're near London: luma.com/hkyckwm8

We've published more research using our density dataset today We study: - how the 'density gap' has been created by successive waves of development - where in urban cores are especially low density - the effectiveness of recent policies on density

I'm very pleased to be on the bill for the next Land Talks Come hear me talk about Croydon and rules based planning and 5 other excellent speakers in a pub 6pm, 11th May luma.com/hkyckwm8

After lots of talking about Croydon as an outsider, we managed to get the creators of the Suburban Design Guide, Alison & Guy, on the @centreforcities.bsky.social podcast!! They add so much detail to the story. I'd urge all rules-based planning enthusiasts - and sceptics - to give it a listen.

The perverse outcome of the failure to build enough social housing (and housing in general). Expect more like this until either we give up on the obligation to house the homeless (we shouldn't) or there's a substantial increase in money for subsidised housebuilding www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A niche but important blog today. When talking about planners doing good things in England, I'm often talking about them using SPDs e.g. for masterplans or making planning more rules-based If not handled correctly, their replacement by Supplementary Plans could make good planning harder

Supplementary Planning Documents help translate local plans into workable guidance. Replacing them with Supplementary Plans could increase their influence, but added scrutiny may limit how often they are used👇 buff.ly/QrVOYTi

The Chancellor's roadmap for fiscal devo is genuinely exciting - done right, it should improve growth + public services across England But the Government needs to act fast - decisions on some new local gov maps are imminent, and we may miss a historic opportunity to get it right

Centre for Cities ( @mauricelange.bsky.social ) appeared on City Ed this week to talk about our research on densification www.youtube.com/watch?v=scJP...

The new NPPF has lots of great stuff, but we think there's more to be done to make it work for cities. Key recs: - designate city centres + urban cores, not just 'town centres' - rewording to make space for bold use of rules-based planning tools outside of allocated sites

The new NPPF contains some welcome changes. But it still needs a stronger urban lens. Our new blog sets out how national planning policy could better reflect the structure of cities and support more homes in them👇 buff.ly/S7NAUEl

Really looking forward to this in-person event in London on Wednesday - should be a great conversation!

Alongside fusion of powers across track and train, Great British Railways could put mayors on track to have European-style powers over local trains. Quick thread on my latest piece setting out what the Railways Bill could mean for greater control of commuter rail in England's secondary cities. 🧵

Rail reform is focused on national coordination. But for England’s largest city regions, the bigger prize may be local integration 🚂 Commuter rail has a different economic role to inter-city services. Devolving it to metro mayors could unlock stronger urban growth. New briefing👇 buff.ly/1mMdvls

Such a mad story. So Mandelson is allegedly secretly planning to flee to the British Virgin Islands and is accidentally rumbled by the bloody Speaker of the House who just happened to be on a visit there! That’s the kind of bad luck that tells you you’ve ran out of lives.

A new blog in which I: - summarise British vs zonal planning approaches to defining developable land in cities - explain the impact on scale and distribution of housebuilding - set out what British planners can easily change Comes with videos! Check it out below

Podcast alum @mauricelange.bsky.social (check out S01 E22) continues to lead on research-driven, outcome-orientated policymaking: www.centreforcities.org/blog/why-bri... cc: @centreforcities.bsky.social @yimbyalliance.org @seancanty.bsky.social @london.gov.uk -AZ

Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding: Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere. samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...

Our latest report looks at lessons for rules-based planning coming from an unlikely London Borough - check this thread by @mauricelange.bsky.social for all the details 👇

The government is to permit a certain amount of social housing "rent convergence" but not as much or as soon as #London councils and housing associations had asked for. What is "rent convergence" and why does it matter? An explainer: www.onlondon.co.uk/what-is-soci...

This is a great paper based on that rarest of things: an actual (fleeting) English planning success story. Zero excuse for any council claiming a housing crisis to not have a knock-off version on the books by September. My only criticism is the cowardly dodge of ‘Croydon Facelift’ for its title.

If only reports could contain GIFs

This is a really interesting thread showing the potential to densify housing in areas with lots of detached houses and large(ish) gardens. We could do a lot more of this.

NEW REPORT out today. TLDR: Rules-based planning works and we can introduce it in British cities relatively easily. A small thread on Croydon’s 3-year planning ‘experiment’ and what it means for urban planning…

Today's newsletter: some thoughts on two excellent reports, one by @dsquareddigest.bsky.social and one by @centreforcities.bsky.social that I think provides excellent collateral and a worked example of his thesis about how to get better at building infrastructure:

Want to know what switching from development control to rules-based planning might look like in the UK? @mauricelange.bsky.social has numbers 👇 HT @stephenkb.bsky.social

I've learned everything I can about this chart and what it means for planning for more houses in cities. The report is out tomorrow! You can watch me talk about the chart and more at the launch event tomorrow, 2pm. Sign up here: www.centreforcities.org/event/what-b...

What does income deprivation look like within UK cities? This #DataViz shows the distribution of neighbourhoods by income deprivation percentile in 2025. While the average would paint a limited picture, the variation within cities reveals the true shape of inequality.

Very swish visual from @centreforcities.bsky.social showing the income distributions of different neighbourhoods within our big towns and cities

Cities sit at the heart of the UK economy. Cities Outlook 2026 looks at what that means for growth and household living standards ▶️

@centreforcities.bsky.social launched a housing density data tool this week. I’m really proud of it and I think it’s got some important lessons. A thread.

A little tool I cooked up using @centreforcities.bsky.social's international residential densities dataset Where are British cities missing density compared to their French and Japanese peers? Do you live in a dense neighbourhood? Find out using the tool!

S01 E22 'Spaghetti Throwing' feat @mauricelange.bsky.social of The Centre for Cities sharing key insights into the reasons the UK keeps failing to build enough homes! - RR

A new NPPF with lots @centreforcities.bsky.social is enthusiastic about. Reforms on land near train stations and urban densities gladly make putting houses near jobs a priority. But we, as per, think more can be done. Read our thoughts here: www.centreforcities.org/blog/christm...

Want to compare how dense cities are in Britain, France and Japan? You're in luck! @centreforcities.bsky.social just released our data As you can see, British big cities are very flat compared to their international peers. ... 🧵

How can spaghetti help us think about planning reform? Check out the latest episode of the pod with @mauricelange.bsky.social of the @centreforcities.bsky.social: makeplanningmakesense.captivate.fm/listen -AZ

I went on @mpmspodcast.bsky.social to chat about planning, local government & other things and had a great time! Want 40 mins of my dulcet tones? Give it a listen here: makeplanningmakesense.captivate.fm/listen

I won a thing! My submission to the @thinkhouseinfo.bsky.social prize was an updated version of @centreforcities.bsky.social paper on public housebuilding from last December. I loved writing the paper, so it's really pleasing to have it recognised. Short thread...

Congratulations to @mauricelange.bsky.social for winning the @thinkhouseinfo.bsky.social Early Career Researcher's Prize and @drblez.bsky.social for being the runner-up in the @thinkhouseinfo.bsky.social Early Career Researcher’s Prize www.thinkhouse.org.uk/about/early-...

Thanks Stephen! We agree on demolitions - especially private demolitions are far below rates in France and Japan. If cities are going to evolve, we need to get comfortable with replacing existing houses with denser, newer stock. (chart from the same report)

The quickest summary of our 50-page report you can get. If you're pressed for time, give this little blog a read!

New report on housing densities in cities out today! If video is how you like your information, watch our presentation back here 👇

🤔Want to more about our new report 'Flat Britain: The urban density gap and how to solve it'? Catch up on the launch event over on our Youtube channel 👇 www.youtube.com/live/vJuxePs...

Great Report by @centreforcities.bsky.social @mauricelange.bsky.social I particularly like this graph which shows Sapporo the least space constrained Japanese city is actually one of the densest. www.centreforcities.org/wp-content/u...

“A large housing project delivering more than 500 homes in west London will no longer go ahead…Specifically, [the developer] claims that the most significant reason for its termination was the new requirement to provide two staircases in London for buildings over 18 metres.”

Big cities like Birmingham could get many more people well connected to its city centre by a 30 minute public transport journey. But this doesn't involve expanding the network - no new trams or new bus routes. This is simply from making the existing network function better: integration. Thread 🧵