Corker of an investigation by @melyorktt.bsky.social into the hundreds of millions of pounds collected by local councils, that they then proceed to do nothing with www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

More than 2mn council homes been sold through right-to-buy, worth £371bn, biggest transfer of public property into private ownership in UK history. Homes were sold at an average discount of 44%, nearly £194bn in lost value to taxpayers. (£) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/... By @melyorktt.bsky.social

@melyorktt.bsky.social's The Sunday Times article analyses the impact of 45yrs of right-to-buy. It highlights our UK Housing Review research that shows 50yrs ago 95% of state spending on housing was on building homes & 5% on benefits. By 2022 this reversed to 88% on benefits & 12% on building homes

This is a v funny piece by colleague @melyorktt.bsky.social, but there is a serious point behind it - a huge number of newbuilds simply aren't built for our changing climate and, pretty soon, may be unlivable. www.thetimes.com/article/49fb...

Another double act with @melyorktt.bsky.social this time in Money. The government’s local government funding proposals, proper reform or a patch-up job on a broken system? Either way, the days of very cheap council tax for some London boroughs could be over www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Will Rachel Reeves’ £39bn “biggest social and affordable housing investment for 50 years” result in more housing for low income households? And what about the rest of the market? My analysis for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/article/faf7...

An excellent analysis of today's housing policy announcements by my colleague @melyorktt.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/article/faf7...

London’s luxury empty houses: why are so many not lived in? I investigate with @davidbyers26.bsky.social and it’s FREE TO READ 🎉 www.thetimes.com/article/163e...

The paywall is down at @thetimes.com - so why not read a new investigation, by @melyorktt.bsky.social and me, on why so many luxury London homes are languishing empty and unloved... from Belgravia to Notting Hill. www.thetimes.com/article/163e...

Absolutely key: there are 5m leasehold properties in the UK; what plans are there to get them feeling, costing and operating like commonhold?

Free to read this weekend too!

As the government proposes banning the sale of new leasehold flats, a class action lawsuit suggests owners may be owed millions in compensation. Very well done by my @thetimes.com colleague James Hurley on the business desk www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Here's everything we know following yesterday's commonhold white paper. It'll be great to see a reinvigorated legal framework for commonhold but there is still a question mark over where this leaves existing leaseholders www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Exc: Houses valued at more than £1m in the Home Counties are taking longer to sell and when they do it is for £150,000 less than the asking price — a far cry from pandemic highs, according to new @investecgroup.bsky.social report www.thetimes.com/uk/society/a...

Leaseholders - new data shows it take the average flat owner 20 years to see the same increase in property value as a house owner would see in 10 years. Has anyone else seen little value growth when they sell a leasehold flat - and would be happy to talk about it?

Ever heard of the Headington Shark, a 25 ft fibreglass sculpture that sticks out of the roof a house in Oxford? Oxford City Council has banned its owner, Magnus, from letting it out on Airbnb. I spoke to him about planning battles and artistic expression www.thetimes.com/article/c0b8...

Generation rent… From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

I investigated delays at the Land Registry. Nearly half of 'complex' applications such as lease extensions are taking 18 months to register, and new build owners are waiting years to be registered as the legal owner of their property www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Took my dog for a walk and he stopped and made this face 😟. I said “oh, don’t be silly, come - it’s a hairless cat on a lead in dungarees”

From @manumidolo.bsky.social: The Building Safety Regulator is often taking more than twice the time to make safety check decisions. In June out of 62 applications for checks; only four of them were completed within the legally mandated 12 week period www.thetimes.com/article/25e2...

Could building on the green belt solve our housing crisis? @centreforcities.bsky.social report they've been working on all year that shows where we could build 5m within commutable distance of 15 cities and 2/3rds of it lies within the green belt www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Now I couldn't say that this is where the new towns *will* be built, but thanks very much to @melyorktt.bsky.social for a great write up of the @centreforcities.bsky.social approach: build on existing urban economies and around public transport nodes www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

In a new regular series of articles called House Histories I started a couple of weeks ago, we ask readers to volunteer their homes and we delve into the history of them to see what we can find. Great comment from a former owner below this week's! www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Hello, everyone! I write about housing for the Times & Sunday Times. Below 👇 are a few examples of my work but if you want to talk about anything housing-related, my DMs are open and my email is in my bio 🧵 www.thetimes.com/life-style/p... Firstly I write about all things leasehold

Ooh! Exciting! Please follow my colleagues 👇