Author Archives: Freddie Jewitt

All the homes we will ever need – a permanent fix for the housing crisis

By Freddie Jewitt | Sun 29th September 2024 - 8:27 am

I have a proposal on how to permanently solve the UK’s housing crisis, forever.

This proposition rests on two arguments:

Unlike all of history, our population is not going to continue to grow. The ONS forecasts that the population of the UK will peak in the early 2040’s at 71m.
It follows that the number of homes needed will similarly peak.

For maximum economic benefits and happiness, we want these homes to be built where people want to live and work. This is predominantly in the south east, where planning permission is constrained by the Green belt.

My proposal is that we build on the Green belt.

The old fear: it’s a slippery slope – grant planning permission for an inch and they will concrete over miles, until all the beauty is gone.

However, if we accept that peak housing is within our sight, we can slough off this fear, like a hermit crab, and confidently scuttle into our final and forever shell.

But how much of the Green belt would need to be built on? Worst case: assuming 100% of the homes are wanted in the southeast, ignoring the 100k’s of new homes already in the pipeline, assuming people continue in wanting to live in ever smaller households (2.3 by 2040) and that we decide we want roomier houses and gardens than the legislation currently allows (15 per hectare vs 30). We would need 2,200,000 homes. Rounding up the worse case, that would require building on 10% of the Green belt. Worst case.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged greenbelt and housing | 35 Comments

Some Questions for the Federal Party and Leadership

By Freddie Jewitt | Mon 18th May 2020 - 1:15 pm

Who are our target voters that will increase our core vote?

What are the challenges they face? What are their hopes and fears? What are the three biggest, most fundamental, most enduring issues they care about enough to vote or change their vote? How do we know we have got beyond face value of what they say to what really influences what they do, in the voting booth?

What is our clear message to them on each issue, based on our values and expressed through our policies? How is that message different to the other parties? Is the message simple enough to …