The housing crisis will only get worse under the Tories' planning proposals | Douglas Murphy

A chronic dependence on high property prices is at the the root of the problem - and the government has no imperative to fix itThe Tories' proposals to overhaul the planning system in England are well-timed, strategically impressive - and utterly disastrous. One of the first big examples of the kind of reform the landslide election victory now allows them to get away with, they are also using the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic to further limit scrutiny of their plans.But even this red-tape blitz does nothing whatsoever to solve the real problem with housing: a crippling dependence on high property values that has backed the nation into a corner, with neither the government nor the construction industry having any real imperative to build a way out of it. Continue reading...