Burnham's council house fantasy
Plus: The tyranny of tribunals, and aircon saves lives
If you were up for the England game, congratulations on still being awake. Our Stat of the Day, below, reveals just how much of the country decided to start the week with a liquid breakfast.
PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham thinks he can fix the housing crisis by building more council homes. A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies out today, and an accompanying piece for CapX by Ben Hopkinson, both show that the sums don’t add up – and that Britain already has twice as much social housing as the EU average. Maybe Burnham should take another look at how to get the private sector building more houses? The latest construction numbers are dire.
Meanwhile, with temperatures soaring, one engineer says the country could run out of air conditioning units. See the piece from Reason, below, on why in Europe, air conditioning is increasingly reserved for the elite. Get yours while you can.
Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.
Marc Sidwell
Editor, CapX
Today’s Takes
Fresh thinking from CapX
Burnham’s council house plan doesn’t add up
Ben Hopkinson
‘The UK has the fourth-highest share of social housing in the OECD, more than double the EU average.’
Andy Burnham wants to fix the housing crisis by building more council homes. While this might be effective rhetoric, it is bad economics. By international standards, Britain isn’t short of social housing. But it does need 6.5 million more homes. Trying to close that gap Burnham’s way would cost taxpayers more than £1.5 trillion. Read More
London’s housing shortage has a strange new twist
James Ball
‘We’ve managed a very British situation in which it’s almost impossible for anyone on an average (or even good) income to buy in London without family help, but it’s also almost impossible to build new homes properly either.’
In this week’s Nimby Watch, some of the capital’s Nimbys feel vindicated by a temporary glut in the London housing market, but it actually points to a worsening of the crisis. Thanks to Labour’s new rules, times are only going to get tougher for renters. Read More
Stat of the day
The CapX Reading List
The best of the web today
The quiet tyranny of employment tribunals
Claire Coutinho, ConservativeHome
‘Courts should not be dictating wages for thousands of workers when the judge neither has to fund the wages, charge the end-user, nor fill the worker shortages.’
Britain is becoming an economic dictatorship – with the judiciary in control. Notoriously, ‘equal value’ pay claims have led to courts dictating wages, Soviet-style. But bad political decisions have piled up legislation handing unelected court officials powers to set prices across the economy, from rents to energy costs to council budgets. It’s time for a reset. Read More
Labour talks growth. It never chooses it
Daniel Susskind, Financial Times 🔒
‘There are moments to prioritise other things above growth – after 18 years of historic economic slowdown this is not one of them.’
Keir Starmer promised to deliver growth, but it was never his priority. Time and again he put other political objectives first. Troublingly, there is little sense that Andy Burnham is any different. He says that growth must be ‘good’ and ‘in every postcode’. But Britain’s central challenge is more basic – it lacks enough growth, full stop. Read More
The hollow promise of Burnhamism
The Capitalist: Hunt – Britain needs boldness
And if you want more...
– The problem with populism (UnHerd)
– Aircon saves lives (Reason)
– How Georgian terraces can solve the housing crisis (The Critic)
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