Leading British think tank, promoting enterprise, ownership & opportunity. Sign up to our newsletter đź”— https://xitter.cf/t.co/sHsVxjJLJo
London, UK
Joined May 2009
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Fifty years ago, Britain was in crisis. The music was good, but the economy was a mess. We were forced to go to the International Monetary Fund for a deeply-damaging bailout.
The UK needed a new direction - that's why Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph founded the Centre for Policy Studies. A full half century on, our new Director, the economist and journalist @LiamHalligan, is arguing for another policy revolution now: lower taxes, cheaper energy, affordable welfare, an economy that rewards work and enterprise.
Britain’s problems are urgent – we're on the brink of another bailout. But we changed course fifty years ago - and with the right ideas, we can do so again.
The Centre for Policy Studies - where the fightback begins.
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
Welfare savings aren't easy, but it's the right thing to do.
You must decide who should get benefits but also who shouldn't - which Labour won't do.
We have a plan to fix the system that saves £36bn. Read it in @CapX ✍️
capx.co/lets-get-britain-wor…
Up to 57% of the cost of a new-build London home is driven by government taxes, regulations and requirements ⬇️
New CPS research by Edward Donovan and Ben Hopkinson reveals how these costs are making homes more expensive and harder to build.
Read our latest report, Easing the Burdens: cps.org.uk/research/easing-t…
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Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
This is a truly excellent piece of work from @Ben_A_Hopkinson & Edward Donovan. Which is why it's so disappointing that the govt response is so utterly complacent. xitter.cf/Ben_A_Hopkinson/status…
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
Labour is set to miss its 1.5 million home target by ~500,000 homes.
Can Labour claim it ever really tried to hit that target when government policy is responsible for more than half the cost of building a new flat in London?
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
The state is making it almost impossible for huge numbers of people to own their own home. Welcome to the world of big government.
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
UK costs were very contained until the 2010s, at least in the data I've seen. My theory is that the big explosion in costs in the last ten years has come in an environment where locals are more and more worried about losing control of development, and therefore give support to stakeholder groups and political entrepreneurs who want to increase costs for their own, separate pet reason (habitats, nutrient runoff, giving subsidised properties to client voters).
Between the 1980s and then, local communities had much tighter control of development, so there was no incentive to allow costs to go up. Developers were fighting against no one, and tended to win. We had few of the crazy cost-increasing measures that other countries implemented.
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
I will cut these costs so young Londoners can get onto the housing ladder.
London must be safe and aspirational, but also affordable.
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
This shoudl also be a reminder that the cost of living crisis is in large part government imposed. You wouldn't have one if you weren't paying so much tax to cover regulations and subsidies. See housing as below, energy, labour costs etc etc etc
Did you know government-imposed costs are responsible for more than half the price of a new build London flat?
Really important new report from @Ben_A_Hopkinson and Edward Donov👇
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
The affordable housing tax on new builds in London is larger than the cost of actually building the house.
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
This is an incredibly useful tool from @Ben_A_Hopkinson and Edward Donovan - see how much of building houses on greenfield/brownfield is due to policy costs, and what can be changed if you vary/omit all the various regulations we impose easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Did you know government-imposed costs are responsible for more than half the price of a new build London flat?
Really important new report from @Ben_A_Hopkinson and Edward Donov👇
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.
Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.
While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.
Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over ÂŁ440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly ÂŁ225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.
Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.
As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.
If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.
Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.
Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…
And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…
Why were there no changes to welfare in the Budget?
@RossjournoClark joins @CapX's The Capitalist podcast to discuss the government's approach to welfare reform.
'No one should begrudge low paid workers a modest pay rise, but they are not the only ones affected. Every increase in a worker’s salary is an increase in the cost of employing that person.'
Missed our latest bit of analysis yesterday? Check out Daniel Herring's article in @ConHome
conservativehome.com/2026/11…
Why has hiring become so expensive? Businesses are being crippled by rising costs.
New CPS analysis shows the annual cost of employing a full-time minimum-wage worker will rise by £4,462 between 2024 and 2027. For 18–20-year-olds, the increase is £4,859.
Higher taxes and wage costs leave businesses with less room to hire and grow.
Read the new research by Daniel Herring, CPS Head of Fiscal and Economic Policy: cps.org.uk/research/the-cost…
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Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
If we want to tackle the NEETs crisis, we’ve got to get businesses involved. Starting by reducing costs for employers so they can take a chance on that young person who doesn’t have as much experience as older hires.
Minimum wage hikes and tax increases are only making it harder for the job creators.
telegraph.co.uk/business/202…
Why has hiring become so expensive? Businesses are being crippled by rising costs.
New CPS analysis shows the annual cost of employing a full-time minimum-wage worker will rise by £4,462 between 2024 and 2027. For 18–20-year-olds, the increase is £4,859.
Higher taxes and wage costs leave businesses with less room to hire and grow.
Read the new research by Daniel Herring, CPS Head of Fiscal and Economic Policy: cps.org.uk/research/the-cost…
Centre for Policy Studies retweeted
My thoughts on:
- Early UK election or not?
- John Healey’s budget
- Tory/Reform plans to tackle welfare spending
- The UK’s “battle of ideas”
- The role of @CPSThinkTank
My latest interview - with @ChristianJMay, Editor of @CityAM
youtu.be/a5EqHM87djs?is=g0Ac…
