Lovely to see @rowanmoore.bsky.social giving space and thought to the ideas in Homesick, alongside the excellent Eviction by Jess Field: observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Labour is pitching the New Towns announcement today as a return to the "transformative post-war housing boom under Clement Attlee". Actually it looks much more like housing policy under Blair, or even Thatcher and Boris Johnson (thread)

Essential reading. Probably not cheerful but definitely necessary.

Something we don't talk about enough in housing is what will happen when a generation of renters start to retire. The private rented sector is not set up for old age: www.standard.co.uk/homesandprop...

Hope to see lots of you on Thursday to launch this important book @peteapps.bsky.social

When I was born, you could buy a house in east London with a modest, irregular income. Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street. What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here: peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...

A shame this isn't going to be made retrospective. There's a few council press officers I could get banged up www.prweek.co.uk/article/1932...

I have a few events coming up surrounding the release of my new book Homesick (out next Thursday). Really looking forward to discussing how we got into this mess and how we can get out with some great people (thread):

Redstone House in Harlow, Essex, is an upsetting and disturbing story of residents forced out of their homes, and also a tale of how far we have fallen from our post-war dreams: peteapps.substack.com/p/a-modern-h...

Started work on this book in 2023, and it finally publishes in a fortnight. If you pre-order from this website, the sale goes to an independent book shop which helps keep them in business: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/home...

We’ve run a few group claims by tenants enduring very similar overly disruptive, mid-managed and delayed refurbishment works (including lift outages, drilling noise etc.) it is astonishing how little planning for mitigating the effect on residents, particularly disabled residents, was done.

Markland House - a block almost literally in the shadow of Grenfell Tower - has been undergoing a major refurbishment. Residents have been enduring broken lifts, massive noise disturbance and lengthy delays. Are the lessons really being learned? peteapps.substack.com/p/a-modern-h...

An investigation here into the fire testing of green walls - plants on the outside of buildings to lay people. Tests on leading systems rely on either being soaked with water or just testing the pots without any plants in. Piece by me for @dezeen.bsky.social www.dezeen.com/2025/09/03/g...

I've spent quite a large part of the summer working on this long read: new documents which shed light on the failures which led to the Ronan Point disaster in the 1960s, which hold eerie parallels with the politics of today: www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-...

Finished copies of Homesick arrived! Out on September 25, pre-order here uk.bookshop.org/p/books/home...

🚨 New on Substack, my follow-up post on Balfron Tower looking at the experience of those for whom it was home and its controversial sell-off. municipaldreams.substack.com/p/balfron-to...

Window catches and childrens' deaths. Figures from the National Child Mortality Database point to a rise in children dying in falls from windows. What is going wrong? peteapps.substack.com/p/window-cat...

My new book, which tracks the impact the housing crisis has had on London since the 1980s and where the city is going in the future, is out on September 25. You can get 25% off if you pre-order with Waterstones here: www.waterstones.com/book/homesic...

It's nearly the end of term, and I'm taking a more creative approach to this week's Substack - reflecting on why looking at the new housing in Stratford while stuck in a traffic jam makes me worry about the end of the world: peteapps.substack.com/p/a-traffic-...

England has an estimated 740 high rises built using the Large Panel System method - which we now know leaves the building at risk of collapse. @peteapps.bsky.social has done a deep dive on the future for these buildings, and visited one that may have to be demolished:

Also, what's the best app for posting to Bluesky and Twitter with just one click? By which I mean something I don't need to "code" or whatever it is the kids do. Currently copy and pasting from one to the other and feeling very much like a non-digital generation parent

To those who have recently watched the Netflix documentary on Grenfell, here's a quick run down of issues which still haven't changed since the fire. Thread on the bad site: x.com/PeteApps/sta...

If anyone has watched the Netflix documentary on Grenfell and is looking for further reading, I've made all my posts summarising the inquiry report free to read. Links in the thread below (on the bad site) x.com/PeteApps/sta...

Around the country - and London in particular - developers are reducing their affordable housing contributions. Do we need a new model for building out large sites? Bit by me for The Developer thedeveloper.live/opinion/a-br...

The Arconic (US) files: peteapps.substack.com/p/the-arconi...

New: US bosses at cladding firm which sold material for use on Grenfell knew it was unsafe and knew it was being sold for use on the tower, newly released emails reveal www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

Some thoughts on Reeves' big affordable housing announcements. Tl;dr - yes it is good news (and a pleasent surprise), but let's not get carried away: peteapps.substack.com/p/yes-it-act...

London boroughs have one officer for every 7,500 rental homes - leaving enforcement deserts “nothing will happen” if tenants complain about poor quality housing. Research by me for The Londoner: www.the-londoner.co.uk/why-is-londo...

I'm fortunate to have read an early copy and, as you would expect from Pete, this is a great book telling an important story. Strong recommend.

I was born into a city where housing was affordable. But I've grown up into one where it was not. What has gone wrong in London over the last 35 years? And where is it going in the future? My new book, Homesick, tells that story. Out Sept 25 www.amazon.co.uk/Homesick-How...

The publisher has cut their costs by outsourcing to this company, the company has cut their costs by using AI/low-paid staff instead of paying for a proper job, while I’ve spent hours & hours fixing the manuscript, so all the extra labour from cost-costing has fallen on me, the unremunerated author

Proud to have contributed to this. An amazing team and a lot of work sit behind it. Continue to be blown away by the bravery of those impacted and the powerful way they push for change and justice. Hope this helps move that forward. (TW - images of Grenfell on fire) www.youtube.com/watch?v=33r1...

For me, one of the problems with the implementation of the Building Safety Regulator is that industry is not used to having to work out compliance at the start. Changing that was always going to be a big disruption. But it absolutely needed to happen www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/assu...

This week's Substack somehow started with the fall out from a prolific fire engineer being suspended, and ended with my anxieties about AI destroying the scaffolding which supports creative careers: peteapps.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...

In defence of "anti-supply measures" peteapps.substack.com/p/in-defence...

The company which made the cladding sold for use on Lakanal House - where six people died in a fire in 2009 - hid crucial caveats about its fire performance from its marketing. Long investigation by me and Martina Lees published today: www.thetimes.com/article/1b57...

In the last of my series of reports picking through the findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report, I look at the disaster through the prism of a single door: The door to flat 136 peteapps.substack.com/p/the-door-t...

I have my first foray into broadcast journalism coming out next week, with Anatomy of a Firetrap - a dive into the building safety crisis and how we got here for Radio 4's File on 4. It's a Radio Times "pick of the week", which is nice!

The response to a disaster where people are forced out of their homes in the UK is almost always defined by traumatising incompetence. As climate breakdown accelerates, we urgently need to sort this and the Grenfell Inquiry report has important lessons: peteapps.substack.com/p/blind-to-t...

What we really have a bad economic strategy masquerading as a housing strategy, when what we really need is a properly thought out housing strategy that changes the current status quo peteapps.substack.com/p/are-we-rea...

If Labour really wants to build 1.5m homes, it needs to bring back public house building in a big way. An extra £2bn is better than a cut, but it also isn't going to change the picture: unherd.com/newsroom/rac...

Massive cuts: who's affected, how much they might lose. Good moves on employment support but other changes could increase fear & sanctions. Thanks to @theifs.bsky.social @resfoundation.bsky.social @jrf-uk.bsky.social @carers-uk.bsky.social for speedy analysis! www.linkedin.com/pulse/so-wha...

A fair few examples of this comms strategy in action in the government media rounds yesterday and this morning

How to actually solve a cladding crisis - lessons from Australia peteapps.substack.com/p/how-to-act...

Horrible scenes from Macedonia. A night club fire poses a very well-established risk of high fatalities. Posting below from the Linkedin of Professor Ed Galea. Owners and regulators have no excuse for allowing these risks to persist

Exclusive (and very worrying): More than 200 blocks around England built in a way which makes them potentially vulnerable to collapse still have a gas supply and may not have had strengthening work www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/reveale...

UK government + media talking about PIP in relation to the “getting people back to work” rhetoric,casting all disabled people as scapegoats for societal+ economic ills PIP is a benefit for disabled people REGARDLESS of if you work or not! Often a nightmare to ‘prove’ you’re ’disabled enough’ to get

Starmer is using Cameron's communication's strategy on welfare: peteapps.substack.com/p/starmer-is...

1/ So, farewell then, Robin Hood Gardens, photographed today as its last remnants are demolished.

3D printed homes are coming. Bit by me for The Developer on a social housing project in Accrington: thedeveloper.live/opinion/ctrl...