Policy expert campaigning for good, genuinely affordable homes for all. Editor of @redbrickblog
London, England
Joined February 2011
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The UK's housing crisis is not just a crisis of low supply. It is a crisis of overdependence on a single model of supply.
Healthy housing systems use many delivery models at once: social housing, private sale, community-led housing, Build to Rent and more.
Me for Red Brick
The housing crisis is too deep and too urgent for ideological purity or single-solution thinking.
If we're serious, we will use every tool in the box to build the homes people need.
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/05/h…
A brilliant and beautiful scheme!
Sadly 0 social rent homes.
But on the bright side, Labour's Right to Buy reforms mean none will be sold off for decades.
🏆 Lion Green Road by Mary Duggan Architects with Ruff Architects wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2026 - the UK's most prestigious architecture award.
➡️ View the winning project: ow.ly/JJSV50ZXUSJ
#StirlingPrize is sponsored by @autodesk
This article makes a strong case for family-run businesses being a good model to protect through generous tax treatment.
But there is quite a lot of evidence showing wealth is squandered as it is passed down the generations - including for inherited companies.
"Inheritance tax toll is mounting on UK family companies"
Changes by Rachel Reeves in 2024 risk cramping expansion and employment plans, driving firms into the hands of private equity...
ft.com/content/ed713df4-92b3…
One study on 3,200 wealthy families found that 70% of family fortunes are lost by the second generation, and a staggering 90% disappear by the third generation.
This particular study is on the extreme end, but many many others back the central point.
faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp…
Your First Home ≠ Help to Buy
"Taking on a mortgage with only a 2.5% deposit is something 1st time buyers should consider carefully, particularly in a time of global economic uncertainty & high inflation. In the end, this scheme’s role must be recognised as limited & specific."
Help to Buy was accused of helping the ‘almost owning’ at the expense of the ‘almost homeless’.
Will Your First Home be different?
@harperingon examines what the Labour Government needs to learn from its predecessor.
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/10/h…
This is such a great idea.
So many problems don't get fixed simply because they slip through the net for Government & industry.
Add 100 small fixes up & we could save people serious time, money and emotional energy.
Might even give us more bandwidth to solve the Big Problems.
NEWS: Today I’m launching The Small Ideas Initiative. We want you to submit ideas at Small-Ideas.org for non-controversial fixes, e.g “live sewage updates for beaches” or “standardised allergen menus”.
A year ago, an interviewer asked what I’d have told the Government if I’d been advising it, I replied, 'Come up with 100 small things that piss people off and fix one a day for the first 100 days'. As I left the stage, I emailed myself, 'set up Small ideas institute!'
And today, I’m excited it's happening. I’m funding two charities to work together to collate the submissions, narrow them down to about 200 doables then turn those into formal policy proposals which I'll bring back to you for feedback.
Then to finish we've a Cross-Party panel who’ve agreed to pick 50ish, after which we’ll start trying to make them happen. You can read far more about it and who the cross party panel are here… blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2…
England has lost a vital tool for sustaining housebuilding throughout market cycles.
Reviving the traditional model of social housing supply would allow us to rebuild and modernise our construction sector, bringing down costs for everyone.
Me for @IPPR
ippr.org/articles/beyond-boo…
🏠️| NEW BLOG: England needs a housing system that can keep building through boom and bust. We set out how social housing can stabilise demand and why mayors are key to delivering it at scale.
Read here 👇
ippr.org/articles/beyond-boo…
I hope to write something soon on how government can use existing funding to scale up council housebuilding.
But there's no doubt about it, @labour_council is right that we don't yet have the policy to meet Labour's promise on the biggest council housing programme since 1980
Government has promised a revival of council housebuilding
But with councils delivering just 3.8% of the 1st tranche of the new Social & Affordable Homes Programme, @mwswindon from @labour_council argues there is a growing gulf between rhetoric & reality
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/10/s…
4 reasons why a 'one stop levy' would be terrible for social housing - and therefore people in housing need, councils, taxpayers and local economies...
The Tories just pledged to replace England's system for delivering social homes & infrastructure on new developments with a 'one stop levy'.
They seem to have forgotten about their failed Infrastructure Levy from just 3 years ago...
Editor @RoseGrayston
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/10/c…
Build costs are a real problem - but attacking Section 106 is a false economy.
Which is why every time it's tried, it fails. This wastes time & energy we could spend tackling the real & persistent drivers of high build costs - the UK's outdated, unproductive building methods
More from me on @redbrickblog today
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/10/c…
I grew up as a young carer from the age of 10.
10 years later, my mum finally accessed social care following a suicide attempt.
Life could be so different for disabled people and their families. Hearing Andy's determination to fix social care makes my heart overflow with hope🌹
"If we don’t track economic eviction, we won’t see it"
Reforming the PRS was never going to be simple. The Renters' Rights Act is a huge step towards a fairer system, BUT there is unfinished business.
St James estate in Bermondsey is a live case study of the gaps in the system.
Section 21 "no fault" evictions are gone, but do we have the data to know whether "economic eviction" is taking its place?
@DrJ_Field explains how those priced out of their homes by rent hikes now risk disappearing from official statistics.
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/09/e…
"Through meaningful regeneration, residents in areas in the Gleadless Valley can look across the city and see a real, achievable future before them. A future that invests in their roots & can give them hope to grow."
Lara Joyce, Gleadless Valley Resident and Tenants’ Association
What does it take to restore hope in communities that have waited too long for change?
Writing for Red Brick, @NHC’s Tracy Harrison argues that housing-led regeneration transforms not just homes, but people’s sense of pride, connection and possibility.
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/09/u…
Great piece from @Victoria_Spratt on the long comedown for the UK's housing market.
Any first-time buyer support today needs to be carefully designed in light of higher interest rates, low house price growth and threats to the economy.
Britain's housing market is in a very bad way. Some will argue that it is a good thing that prices are coming down, particularly in London and the South East. But in the short term, stagnation is a big problem. All now compounded by mortgage rate hikes and incoming inflation.
But the government have told me “there are no current plans to introduce a new Help to Buy scheme” despite speculation.
So - what could and should they do instead?
Policy expert @rosegrayston explains that intervention is needed.
This could look like "releasing land from the green belt specifically for homes that don’t rely on demand for market sale, like social homes, Build to Rent and, potentially, homes that are specifically for first-time buyers."
Expert market analyst Neal Hudson says the govt should “subsidise demand” by bringing forward “a load of social and affordable housing funding” to "de-risk" developments.
My Big Read @theipaper
inews.co.uk/news/first-time-…
Rose Grayston retweeted
Cambridge wants new council homes to be energy efficient and climate resilient – without making difficult urban sites unviable.
Council Leader @cllrkatie explains how and why the city created its own ‘Cam Standard’ for sustainable council housing.
redbrickblog.co.uk/2026/09/b…
