Maurice Lange
@mauricelange.bsky.social
keen on there being more houses for everyone. crunching numbers and thinking about urban problems @centreforcities.bsky.social; community unionising @acornunion.bsky.social; other bits
The Prime Minister plans to 'rewire the state' and give more power to councils and mayors, who are better placed to deliver locally catered economic policy. Income tax sharing to mayors will be key to this. The UK is the most fiscally centralised country in the G7, holding back wages and growth.
Have a listen to @antbreach.bsky.social @andrewcities.bsky.social and I chatting about council housing: - what is it? - what could Burnham's plans be? - and where should we prioritise for more building? (hint, big cities)
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 2w agoThe new Prime Minister’s plan for council housing🎙️ The latest episode of the podcast dives into Andy Burnham's emphasis on council house building in his recent speech and how it fits into the wider urban housing crisis 🏘️ Listen now 👇 buff.ly/jRaYoMP
My colleague @mauricelange.bsky.social on why @london.gov.uk should intervene to make sure Crews Hill new town goes ahead www.centreforcities.org/blog/the-lon...
Will the new towns programme fall at its first major hurdle? I sincerely hope not! At Centre for Cities we've done a lot of thinking about where it makes sense for public sector intervention to get large-scale building happening, and Crews Hill ticks all the boxes as far as we can see.
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 2mo agoNEW BLOG | Crews Hill could deliver 21,000 homes around a station with a direct link to central London. London’s 88,000-home annual target will not be met without large urban extensions like this 👇 buff.ly/Uax9jQu
I had a lot of fun making the graphics for this one! As you can see, we identify a clear post-war 'collar' (blues) around the city centres of cities like Manchester and Birmingham This matters because... (chart below)
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 3mo agoNEW BLOG | Densifying postwar neighbourhoods is key to closing Britain’s urban density gap. In Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, some of the best-connected places are home to some of the least dense housing👇
@mauricelange.bsky.social is one of the speakers - going into the details of how Croydon allowed anyone to convert houses into flats, and where else a similar scheme woudl work to increase amount of housing.
The final Land Talks of the season is the week after next! The full lineup of speakers is up, and is too varied to compress into this post. Everything from co-ops and buyouts to freeing planning and land-value capture. Get your ticket here, if you're near London: luma.com/hkyckwm8
Land Talks #6: Start-Up Nation, Doubling Homebuilding & The Battersea Job · Luma
🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…
luma.com
We've published more research using our density dataset today We study: - how the 'density gap' has been created by successive waves of development - where in urban cores are especially low density - the effectiveness of recent policies on density
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 3mo agoBritish cities are missing around 2.3 million homes compared to international peers. New research shows this “density gap” is central to housing and growth challenges. Read our latest report 'Course correction: How to densify British cities'👇 www.centreforcities.org/publication/...
I'm very pleased to be on the bill for the next Land Talks Come hear me talk about Croydon and rules based planning and 5 other excellent speakers in a pub 6pm, 11th May luma.com/hkyckwm8
Land Talks #6: Start-Up Nation, Doubling Homebuilding & The Battersea Job · Luma
🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…
luma.com
After lots of talking about Croydon as an outsider, we managed to get the creators of the Suburban Design Guide, Alison & Guy, on the @centreforcities.bsky.social podcast!! They add so much detail to the story. I'd urge all rules-based planning enthusiasts - and sceptics - to give it a listen.
City Minutes: The Croydon planning experiment - Centre for Cities
Andrew Carter is joined by Alison Coutinho and Guy Rochez who both worked for Croydon council between 2019 and 2022 when they were designing and implementing a new planning strategy to build more home...
centreforcities.org
The perverse outcome of the failure to build enough social housing (and housing in general). Expect more like this until either we give up on the obligation to house the homeless (we shouldn't) or there's a substantial increase in money for subsidised housebuilding www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Richmond evictions for Westminster housing branded 'disgraceful'
Garden Court tenants are served eviction notices so the flats can become temporary accommodation.
bbc.co.uk
A niche but important blog today. When talking about planners doing good things in England, I'm often talking about them using SPDs e.g. for masterplans or making planning more rules-based If not handled correctly, their replacement by Supplementary Plans could make good planning harder
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 5mo agoSupplementary Planning Documents help translate local plans into workable guidance. Replacing them with Supplementary Plans could increase their influence, but added scrutiny may limit how often they are used👇 buff.ly/QrVOYTi
Supplementary Planning Documents help translate local plans into workable guidance. Replacing them with Supplementary Plans could increase their influence, but added scrutiny may limit how often they are used👇 buff.ly/QrVOYTi
The Government must ensure ‘supplementary plans’ are easy to introduce - Centre for Cities
Why replacing SPDs with Supplementary Plans could weaken a key planning tool if the reforms are not handled well.
buff.ly
The Chancellor's roadmap for fiscal devo is genuinely exciting - done right, it should improve growth + public services across England But the Government needs to act fast - decisions on some new local gov maps are imminent, and we may miss a historic opportunity to get it right
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe Chancellor’s fiscal devolution roadmap is a major shift. But without the right local boundaries, it risks creating uneven tax bases and service gaps. Local government reform must match economic reality👇 buff.ly/fqXZERH
Centre for Cities ( @mauricelange.bsky.social ) appeared on City Ed this week to talk about our research on densification www.youtube.com/watch?v=scJP...
How to fix Britain
YouTube video by CityEd.
youtube.com
The new NPPF has lots of great stuff, but we think there's more to be done to make it work for cities. Key recs: - designate city centres + urban cores, not just 'town centres' - rewording to make space for bold use of rules-based planning tools outside of allocated sites
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe new NPPF contains some welcome changes. But it still needs a stronger urban lens. Our new blog sets out how national planning policy could better reflect the structure of cities and support more homes in them👇 buff.ly/S7NAUEl
The new NPPF contains some welcome changes. But it still needs a stronger urban lens. Our new blog sets out how national planning policy could better reflect the structure of cities and support more homes in them👇 buff.ly/S7NAUEl
How the NPPF can work harder for cities - Centre for Cities
Proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to improve planning and housebuilding in UK cities.
buff.ly
Really looking forward to this in-person event in London on Wednesday - should be a great conversation!
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 5mo agoJoin Mayor Andy Burnham for a keynote speech and discussion on the future of English devolution. We will host the @mayorofgm.bsky.social to reflect on Greater Manchester’s journey so far and set out his ambitions for the next phase of devolution👇 buff.ly/uQXZSyc
Alongside fusion of powers across track and train, Great British Railways could put mayors on track to have European-style powers over local trains. Quick thread on my latest piece setting out what the Railways Bill could mean for greater control of commuter rail in England's secondary cities. 🧵
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 5mo agoRail reform is focused on national coordination. But for England’s largest city regions, the bigger prize may be local integration 🚂 Commuter rail has a different economic role to inter-city services. Devolving it to metro mayors could unlock stronger urban growth. New briefing👇 buff.ly/1mMdvls
Rail reform is focused on national coordination. But for England’s largest city regions, the bigger prize may be local integration 🚂 Commuter rail has a different economic role to inter-city services. Devolving it to metro mayors could unlock stronger urban growth. New briefing👇 buff.ly/1mMdvls
All aboard for growth: Why rail reform is incomplete without rail devolution for England’s big cities - Centre for Cities
This briefing sets out how rail reform can fill in the missing piece of the integrated transport puzzle that would better connect 1.2 million more people in England’s six largest urban economies…
buff.ly
Such a mad story. So Mandelson is allegedly secretly planning to flee to the British Virgin Islands and is accidentally rumbled by the bloody Speaker of the House who just happened to be on a visit there! That’s the kind of bad luck that tells you you’ve ran out of lives.
A new blog in which I: - summarise British vs zonal planning approaches to defining developable land in cities - explain the impact on scale and distribution of housebuilding - set out what British planners can easily change Comes with videos! Check it out below
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 6mo agoMost urban land in Britain is not clearly defined as developable. This blog looks at how that limits housebuilding, and how a more rules-based approach could expand supply👇 buff.ly/tj9XGgl
Podcast alum @mauricelange.bsky.social (check out S01 E22) continues to lead on research-driven, outcome-orientated policymaking: www.centreforcities.org/blog/why-bri... cc: @centreforcities.bsky.social @yimbyalliance.org @seancanty.bsky.social @london.gov.uk -AZ
Why British planning needs to expand the definition of developable land in cities - Centre for Cities
Why Britain’s narrow definition of developable land limits urban housebuilding and how reform could unlock supply.
centreforcities.org
Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding: Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere. samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
Our latest report looks at lessons for rules-based planning coming from an unlikely London Borough - check this thread by @mauricelange.bsky.social for all the details 👇
Maurice Lange@mauricelange.bsky.social · 6mo agoNEW REPORT out today. TLDR: Rules-based planning works and we can introduce it in British cities relatively easily. A small thread on Croydon’s 3-year planning ‘experiment’ and what it means for urban planning…
The government is to permit a certain amount of social housing "rent convergence" but not as much or as soon as #London councils and housing associations had asked for. What is "rent convergence" and why does it matter? An explainer: www.onlondon.co.uk/what-is-soci...
What is 'rent convergence' and why does London need it?
The capital's councils and housing associations see it as key to repairing their strained finances, improving their stock and building more
onlondon.co.uk
This is a great paper based on that rarest of things: an actual (fleeting) English planning success story. Zero excuse for any council claiming a housing crisis to not have a knock-off version on the books by September. My only criticism is the cowardly dodge of ‘Croydon Facelift’ for its title.
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 6mo ago🆕What happens when planning rules are clearer and more predictable? Our latest briefing examines Croydon’s Suburban Design Guide and its impact on small-site housing delivery. 👇 buff.ly/vLNo0r9
If only reports could contain GIFs
Viola Pititto@violaviz.bsky.social · 6mo agoLoved working on these maps with @mauricelange.bsky.social for his briefing out today, showing Croydon's Suburban Design Guide impact on small-site housing delivery. The flythrough helps show how viability translates into action (in Croydon's case), and where else it could work in London.
This is a really interesting thread showing the potential to densify housing in areas with lots of detached houses and large(ish) gardens. We could do a lot more of this.
Maurice Lange@mauricelange.bsky.social · 6mo agoNEW REPORT out today. TLDR: Rules-based planning works and we can introduce it in British cities relatively easily. A small thread on Croydon’s 3-year planning ‘experiment’ and what it means for urban planning…
NEW REPORT out today. TLDR: Rules-based planning works and we can introduce it in British cities relatively easily. A small thread on Croydon’s 3-year planning ‘experiment’ and what it means for urban planning…
Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 6mo ago🆕What happens when planning rules are clearer and more predictable? Our latest briefing examines Croydon’s Suburban Design Guide and its impact on small-site housing delivery. 👇 buff.ly/vLNo0r9