The big idea: could fixing housing fix everything else, too?

If you could wave a magic wand and fix one modern ill, what would it be? Inequality? Pollution? Intergenerational unfairness? The decline of the high street? Suburban ennui? What if you didn’t have to pick, because there was one social problem that lay at the root of all of them?

It’s not exactly news that Britain has a shortage of housing. We’re not building enough, and the homes we do build are often too small and in the wrong places. That means houses are expensive, with the obvious result that we have to spend more on rent and mortgages. But the real costs go far beyond that. Where we live affects our jobs, our families, even our impact on the environment. And just as smoking damages every part of your body, a housing shortage makes all those aspects of our lives worse than they should be, too.

Read more here.