Original ‘yimbyism manifesto’ republished by IEA
The Institute of Economic Affairs has republished a 37-year-old report on a shortfall of millions of homes, with a new foreword criticising the planning system.
It says No Room! No Room! The Costs of the British Town and Country Planning System, written by the late professor Alan Evans in 1987, could be considered the original manifesto of yimbyism.
Kristian Niemietz, editorial director at the IEA, says in his foreword that the system continues to stifle Britain’s housing market and economic growth.
The Institute of Economic Affairs has republished a 37-year-old report on a shortfall of millions of homes, with a new foreword criticising the planning system.
It says No Room! No Room! The Costs of the British Town and Country Planning System, written by the late professor Alan Evans in 1987, could be considered the original manifesto of yimbyism.
Kristian Niemietz, editorial director at the IEA, says in his foreword that the system continues to stifle Britain’s housing market and economic growth.
Niemietz said “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”.
However, he added that the problem is now widely recognised and there is considerable support for policies that 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 it were felt.
The IEA says median house prices in London are nearly 12 times the median annual income and eight nationwide, making homeownership unachievable for many.
It says Britain’s housing stock falls short by millions compared with its European peers, with an urgent need for at least 3.4m homes.
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.
The IEA says housing land prices in the South East are more than 200 times higher than agricultural land, with prices 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 affected 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.
Niemietz 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.”
