The Institute of Economic Affairs is proud to announce the
republication of the seminal “No Room! No Room! The Costs of the British Town and
Country Planning System”, by the late Professor Alan Evans. Originally published
in 1988, this hard-hitting analysis of the planning system can be
considered the original manifesto of “YIMBYism”.
This edition features a new foreword
by Dr Kristian Niemietz, Editorial Director at the Institute of
Economic Affairs, emphasising this critique of the system that
continues to stifle Britain's housing market and economic
growth.
Niemietz describes stumbling upon the
publication in the IEA archives, remarking that
“despite the old-fashioned
typesetting... it felt as if it had been published last
week”, and that
“the problems Professor Evans
originally identified in 1988 are all immeasurably worse
today”.
The only positive note is that the
problem is now widely recognised, and there is now considerable
support for policies which seek to liberate Britain's restrictive
planning system.
“No Room! No Room!” laid bare the
extent of Britain's housing crisis before the full effects of the
crisis was felt. The housing affordability ratio has climbed to
over 8 nationwide and nearly 12 in London, meaning that
homeownership is simply unachievable for
many.
Britain's housing stock falls short by
millions compared to its European peers, with an urgent need for
at least 3.4 million new units.
Contrary to popular belief, the UK has
one of the lowest housing vacancy rates in the OECD, with less
than 1% of housing stock unoccupied in the
long-term.
Housing land prices in the Southeast
are over 200 times higher than agricultural land, driven up by
restrictive planning policies that have created artificial
scarcity.
“No Room! No Room!”
makes various recommendations to
create a more flexible and
economically rational approach to housing,
including:
-
Compensate affected
residents: Offer
direct financial compensation to residents impacted by nearby
developments to reduce local opposition.
-
Reduce rent-seeking: reduce discretionary elements in the planning system,
which incentivise lobbying and other non-productive uses of
resources.
-
Targeted building on the green belt:
Develop parts of the green belt with
minimal environmental impact to alleviate urban overcrowding
and increase housing supply.
-
Decentralisation to change incentives:
Shift tax incentives to local
authorities, allowing them to benefit financially from granting
planning permissions, thus aligning their interests with
increasing housing supply.
-
Streamline planning system:
Simplify and accelerate the planning
system to reduce delays and lower costs, benefiting developers
and communities alike. Create a default stance in favour of
development, while ensuring economic costs and benefits are
accounted for in planning
decisions.
There is an urgent need for
fundamental reform to the planning system to solve Britain's
housing crisis.
Dr Kristian Niemietz, IEA
Editorial Director and Head of Political Economy,
said:
"What is so amazing about this
book is that, even though it is nearly 37 years old, it still
reads as if it had only been written last week. If you are
looking for an introduction to the causes of Britain's housing
crisis, the book still does that job remarkably well, after all
these years - better, in fact, than a lot of what is being
published today. It is precisely the fact that this book is, by
definition, free from any hindsight bias which makes the argument
all the more powerful."
Best, Independent Crossbencher
and former Chair of the Affordable Housing Commission,
said:
"I recall the original report by
Professor Evans and it was certainly ahead of its time! Much of
it is now broadly accepted by most housing experts - and indeed
by the current government."
Sam Bowman, Editor of Works in
Progress, said:
"No Room! No Room! is
enormously valuable for two reasons. One, it is a clear and
insightful diagnosis of why Britain's housing shortage matters
and where it comes from. But two, just as importantly, it proves
that many explanations for the housing shortage that are popular
today are wrong: we cannot blame high house prices on
'financialisation' or immigration if the problem was already
deeply embedded by the 1980s. No Room! No Room! shows
that our problems date back to the postwar governments that
curbed supply and nationalised the land-use planning market, and
that only undoing these mistakes will restore Britain's housing
market to normality and Britain's economy to
prosperity."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
