Why this week’s welter of announcements fail even on their own terms, why the Conservatives can’t escape an electoral trap of their own making and why they don't mention affordability.
Thanks for the great comment. That's really interesting as Tokyo is often held up elsewhere as the example to follow, with the removal of restrictions on building leading to more new homes and lower prices. Even allowing for much more frequent demolition and rebuilding, net completions of new homes and rents seem to be significantly lower - but as you say flats also seem to be smaller so the problems hit you somewhere. Not sure that housing costs are the only cause of smaller families but the most expensive cities like London are starting to see schools close because of it and the divide with lower wage/lower housing cost areas seems to be getting larger. Is private property the problem - home ownership grew through most of the 20th century and remained affordable - or the commodification of it?
Thanks for the great comment. That's really interesting as Tokyo is often held up elsewhere as the example to follow, with the removal of restrictions on building leading to more new homes and lower prices. Even allowing for much more frequent demolition and rebuilding, net completions of new homes and rents seem to be significantly lower - but as you say flats also seem to be smaller so the problems hit you somewhere. Not sure that housing costs are the only cause of smaller families but the most expensive cities like London are starting to see schools close because of it and the divide with lower wage/lower housing cost areas seems to be getting larger. Is private property the problem - home ownership grew through most of the 20th century and remained affordable - or the commodification of it?