How can we create networks of high quality physical infrastructure – including housing and transportation – that will drive inclusive economic growth, nationally and regionally? How can we best manage our utilities – including rail, water, energy and broadband – to sustainably deliver value for both consumer and taxpayer?
This work stream focuses particularly on place-based approaches to policy, planning and investment, such as our current work on capturing the uplift in land value to finance infrastructure.
No amount of political Budget gloss will cover the cracks of the UK’s productivity problem, but the role of place in the industrial strategies offers a glimmer of hope
No amount of political Budget gloss will cover the cracks of the UK’s productivity problem, but the role of place in the industrial strategies offers a glimmer of hope. Continue reading “Government finally shows signs of spatial awareness in its industrial strategy”
Centre Director Thomas Aubrey argues that the Chancellor Philip Hammond must act in the upcoming budget to end monopolistic pricing in the land market if the government is to tackle the housing crisis
In 1884 the Republican Party was accused by Major General Ben Butler, a former Republican, as being the “Party of Monopolists”. Butler was outraged that a banquet for the Republican presidential candidate attended by the country’s millionaires and monopolists sealed their allegiance to the party.
Continue reading “End this monopoly now Mr Hammond if you want to solve the housing crisis”
But the Commission’s final report misses an opportunity to put sub-regional devolution at the heart of a new approach to strategic economic management.
But the Commission’s final report misses an opportunity to put sub-regional devolution at the heart of a new approach to strategic economic management.
“Rise up with me against the organisation of misery,” rallied Sir Michael Marmot in his 2010 landmark review of health inequalities in the UK. Quoting Pablo Neruda lends poetic grace to the weight of Marmot’s quantitative evidence as to the ‘social gradient’ of health. Poor people die younger and get ill earlier. In their lifetime, people living in the most deprived areas of the country are likely to experience levels of ill health not seen amongst individuals in the least deprived areas for another 20 years. Health inequalities are inextricably linked to social and economic inequalities. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) put it starkly, “social injustice is killing on a grand scale”.
Continue reading “Fresh vision as the Industrial Strategy Commission moves beyond sector deals”
Use the rise in land value to build 150,000 new homes and invest £8bn in infrastructure along the Cambridge to Oxford corridor
Use rise in land value to build 150,000 new homes and invest £8bn in infrastructure along the Cambridge to Oxford corridor
As the Chancellor starts preparing for his Autumn Budget, increasing investment in housing and infrastructure will be towards the top of his priority list. The challenge for Philip Hammond is that the uncertainty surrounding Brexit has negatively impacted the economy, leaving him less wiggle room than he had previously hoped.
Continue reading “What the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget needs to say”
With a change to the 1961 Land Compensation Act, the necessary investment in infrastructure and affordable housing along the Oxford – Milton Keynes – Cambridge corridor could be funded
The 2017 general election engendered a surprising, but welcome cross-party consensus that the municipality should benefit from the rise in land values to fund infrastructure, opening up new land for housing. Indeed, it was mentioned in both major party manifestos. Extensive research by the Centre for Progressive Capitalism has estimated that England alone could generate up to £185 billion of incremental investment over the next 20 years. Continue reading “Market prices and the housing crisis”
Writing for Inside Housing, centre director Thomas Aubrey argues that it should be dynamic city regions, not unproductive landowners, that capture the uplift in land value when housing is built.
Writing for Inside Housing, centre director Thomas Aubrey argues that it should be dynamic city regions, not unproductive landowners, that capture the uplift in land value when housing is built.
Continue reading “Landowners should not reap all the benefits from development”
A new report prepared by the Centre for Progressive Capitalism for Built Environment Forum estimates the returns from land value capture for the Edinburgh City Region over a 20-year period.
A new report prepared by the Centre for Progressive Capitalism for Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS), following an event on housing policy reform in Scotland earlier this year, estimates the returns from land value capture for the Edinburgh City Region over a 20-year period.
Continue reading “Edinburgh could benefit from £8.6 bn in additional funds by capturing land value”
Centre director Thomas Aubrey sets out the case for the new land compensation rules, showing that they will will drive up infrastructure investment and raise the rate of housebuilding
Land value capture is an idea that appears to have come of age in the United Kingdom. Last weekend, the Conservative Party announced it intended to address long-standing compensation rules as a key plank of its housing policy. These rules have acted as a major barrier to infrastructure investment, which is one of the reasons why housing supply has not been able to keep up with demand.
In 2016 a National Audit Office report identified that the actual rate of public land sales was significantly lower than the £1bn per annum assumed by the government. As a result of this difference, the Centre for Progressive Capitalism has updated its analysis on the potential incremental uplift from land value capture for residential housing.
In 2016 a National Audit Office report identified that the actual rate of public land sales was significantly lower than the £1bn per annum assumed by the government. As a result of this difference, the Centre for Progressive Capitalism has updated its analysis on the potential incremental uplift from land value capture for residential housing. The significantly lower figure of public land sales means that the potential incremental uplift for infrastructure investment is now £185bn over the next 20 years, £13bn more than our initial estimate of £172bn.
Continue reading “Estimating land value capture for England – updated analysis”
