The GLA allocates is own share of the grant for London. And announced today, six northern mayors will also £7bn between them to allocate. (Greater Manchester, West Midlands, North East, West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire)

UK brick deliveries are a useful proxy for new house building starts in the absence of monthly house building starts data & the latest data from the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) covers September 2025. (1/n) #ukhousing #ukconstruction

What are people's thoughts on this paper setting out a case for government grant on hybrid heat pumps? They're saying the heat pump can do 94% of the heat, but the gas backup helps in very cold weather. www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/img/PR/hybri... The figures here look quite compelling:

Niche blog post #1: what stamp duty statistics say about how many home purchases are for "additional" dwellings rather than primary homes jamesjgleeson.wordpress.com/2025/10/19/a...

The Government's Carbon Budget Delivery Plan was published yesterday. Confirms for the first time that the Future Homes Standard has been delayed - it was initially due to start in 2025, but still isn't published, and seems rollout is now from 2027. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6901d0...

British people welcomed Ukrainians into their homes, just 3 years ago.

So the Renters Rights Bill has finally passed. S21 evictions will soon be no more. A few reflections on the long road to get to this point 🧵

Fascinating chart here - that runs very much counter to the rhetoric we keep hearing about tax being too high - we actually tax the average earner quite a lot less than most comparable countries, in the UK.

Steve Reed on Radio 4 this morning is proposing that modular housing can be built on former military bases as an alternative to housing asylum seekers in hotels. Modular homes are built off-site in factories so can indeed be built quite quickly if you drive them through planning.

The problem with buying back properties to fix "the social housing crisis" is that it isn't *just* a social housing crisis. You're taking away useful first time buyer homes to make social homes, so it's a bit of a zero sum game. Really need to build more homes.

Not sure I agree with this - changes to property taxation need to be thought through, but his suggestion of publicly announcing a 12 month review into it would likely grind the housing market to a halt while everyone waits to see what will happen. www.thetimes.com/article/e895...

That would require him to be in parliament to ask it wouldn't it?

The other big takeaway from Caerphilly is that despite a brief resuscitation in 2017 the two party system is well and truly over for the UK. And that means either we bite the bullet on PR or the parties are all going to have to make deals to not split the left or right vote

Quite a range of measures here to try to get housebuilding going again in London.

So the Renters Rights Bill has finally passed. S21 evictions will soon be no more. A few reflections on the long road to get to this point 🧵

Rents have increased by a fifth in recent years since Local Housing Housing allowance was frozen, up £210 a month!! The strain of this freeze on private renters is immense; in April around 40% of private renters in receipt of LHA said they didn't have enough to cover rent.

Yesterday's panorama was an excellent overview of the challenges in building 1.5m homes - skills, planning, and nutrient neutrality problems were all well explained. It's a great watch for anyone wanting to understand what makes it hard to get new homes built. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Who says social housing can't be beautiful?

The shortlist for Building Awards' Best Housing Project has been published - in partnership with The Housing Forum. Creative design, clever use of challenging infill sites and impressive eco credentials - do take a look for inspiration on what can be achieved. www.building.co.uk/building-awa...

I always find it a bit weird when councils insist that communities have to be "balanced". Don't students quite like living with other students? And other residents don't always like living next door to them - so why not put the students all in big blocks together?

Every time we see further increases in people living in temporary accommodation I feel it should be pointed out that the big reason is that Local Housing Allowance is capped based on 2023 rents. Rents are rising, so private renting is increasing out of range for families in particular.

Homelessness stats just out show another new record in households (132k) and children (172k) living in temporary accommodation. Up 7.5% in last year www.gov.uk/government/s...

Looks like the Renters Reform Bill should be passed very soon.

So Farage wants to scrap double council tax on second homes - a policy that's been working well to raise more money for councils and also free up more homes for locals. And instead ban new homes from being sold to anyone not already local - a policy shown to grind housebuilding to virtually zero?

A possible unintended consequence of the ban on bidding wars here: 1) Landlords advertise higher rents, expecting probably to let for a bit less. 2) Data is published on advertised rents showing they've risen sharply. 3) Other landlords see the data and put their rents up too.

Latest stats on greenbelt land published today - I think people are always surprised by this map, which shows that the large majority of land across England is neither built up, nor greenbelt. Most of it's just ordinary, unprotected farmland. www.gov.uk/government/s...

This is really good news - 21,000 new homes can now go ahead, as solutions have been found that protects water systems. Housebuilding had been paused across much of Sussex for the last 4 years because of concerns that supplying the water to new homes would damage local ecosystems.

This is actually a pretty good policy if you want to help people move location downsize or upsize, and get the housing market moving. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Here's the relevant chart from the above report. It's rare to see such a clear, consistent slope in any social trend. That segregation is decreasing is perhaps the best evidence, least controversial social fact of modern Britain

August is generally a relatively slow month for deliveries & starts, but the fact that deliveries are now significantly lower than the same month a year ago (which was a low level of deliveries & house building), is a significant concern. (3/n) #ukhousing #ukconstruction

Full details of what the Government is proposing to speed up property transactions now out - www.gov.uk/government/c... The reasons for tackling this problem are pretty clear:

These sound like sensible reforms to help the housing market - reduced time on searches and buyers being able to see solicitors' track record should help chains to move faster. www.independent.co.uk/money/steve-...

If you spent ten times the current budget on building social housing (ie increase it from 4bn to 40bn a year), you could build around 200,000 a year. So after 25 years you might have enough to replace the 4.4m private rentals.

So it turns out the main council expenditure *wasn't* in fact the Diversity and Inclusion training budget?

Informative🧵about why social landlords can't absorb affordable homes built by developers and what could be done about it.

Some important findings here from HBF on housing sites stalled because housing associations don't have the money to buy the social housing that's required under S106 agreements. There are several reasons why this has happened

There's much discussion on these hats which are being handed out at the Labour conference. Are they: A) An upbeat statement on the most important thing you can do on housing? B) A bit too much MAGA?

New town locations now out: - Adlington, Cheshire East - South Gloucestershire - Enfield - Heyford Park in Cherwell - Leeds - Manchester, Victoria North - Marlcombe, East Devon - A ‘Renewed Town’ in Milton Keynes; - Plymouth - Tempsford - Thamesmead, Greenwich; - Worcestershire Parkway, Wychavon

Using old garage sites for housing isn't new - but we've made slow progress at it and there's definitely still much potential to turn more ASB magnets into new homes.

Good thread here explaining the problems with the current legalities on right-to-work and right-to-rent checks. - They aren't obligatory. - Employing or renting to people with temporary rights to be here are a particular faff. - Discrimination runs high.

Some strongly worded criticism of planning committees here from the Planning Inspectorate. "Planning decisions are not referendum" Councillors cannot vito development on the grounds that lots of people have objected to it. Only the substance of their objections can count.

New reports calculate how many homes the UK needs, but we must recognise the scale of the challenge, writes @annaclarke.bsky.social, director of policy and public affairs at The Housing Forum #UKhousing www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/late...

Yet again CPRE are claiming there's sufficient brownfield land and we don't need to build on any countryside. There are many reasons why this isn't correct 🧵

Nothing in this acknowledges the economic reality of why many brownfield sites don’t get away as housing: they’re not financially viable unless someone (usually us, in some form) pays for them to be cleaned up and made ready

This does kind of seem like the routine sort of thing councils should be sorting out without the help of the MP?

MHCLG estimating that "196,500 net additional homes have been delivered in England between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025". The numbers are heading in the wrong direction for the government to get anywhere near their 1.5m target and they'll be lucky to hit 1m at this rate.

This case does highlight the (I'm sure unintended) "anti marriage" effects of the second home stamp duty - a married person must pay the premium on buying a property (even if they don't own the house they live in) but a cohabiting couple can buy a second home by owning one each with no extra charge.

Well I've always considered September to be an autumn month. But it's still summer for the Government apparently

Great thread here showing how increased taxes on landlords after 2016 helped homeownership to grow again.

EPC ratings are being used for access to grants, to ban landlords for letting low-rated properties, and for access to green finance. But yet another study has found they bear no relation to energy used. share.google/oqiQWuAtGTJ4...