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** Rays of Hope on Housing?
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By Kristian Niemietz, IEA Editorial Director

My IEA Discussion Paper Home Win: What if Britain Solved its Housing Crisis? ([link removed]) describes a hypothetical near-future revolution in British housing policy, in which an unspecified near-future government decides to finally grasp the nettle, and sort out Britain’s housing crisis once and for all.

One ingredient of this housing revolution is a fictitious ‘New Towns Act 2027’, which leads to a revival of the postwar New Towns programme.

This week, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, revealed a programme for New Towns which, at first sight, looks eerily similar to my made-up New Towns Act. Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right, after all, and the IEA really is secretly pulling the strings in the background!

If so, I need to get better at communicating my ideas, though. Because, despite the superficial similarities, Rayner’s plan differs in important respects from what I had in mind.

In my version, the point of New Towns is to deliver a large agglomeration of new housing quickly, without planning battles and NIMBY dramas. That’s all they’re supposed to do. Just that. Nothing else.

Raynertown, if it ever gets built, would admittedly be a better place than Niemietzville, because it is a much more ambitious project. Rayner, it seems, wants New Town developers to offer two out of five housing units at below-market rates, to build them to the highest environmental standards, and to co-finance a raft of local amenities upfront. Nice work if you can get it. But the risk, of course, is that, if you overload the project with too many policy objectives, expecting New Towns to solve all of the country’s social and environmental problems at once – they may never take off in the first place.

It is still early days, though, and the details of the policy have yet to be revealed. Maybe Rayner was describing her ideal vision of a New Town, rather than a set of non-negotiable policy requirements that she wants to impose on all of them.

If so – maybe the future I describe in Home Win begins now!
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The trouble with Labour’s new towns plan ([link removed])

Kristian Niemietz, The Spectator ([link removed])

The enemy of the good… Labour’s housebuilding ambitions are exciting but they could be fatally undermined by attaching a progressive wishlist to new developments.

Home Win: What if Britain Solved its Housing Crisis? ([link removed])
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** Upcoming IEA Events ([link removed]) : You’re Invited!
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From in-depth conversations with leading policy experts to panel discussions on our latest research, the IEA’s events schedule is bound to have something for you.
* IEA Panel Discussion on Colonialism – the foundation of Western prosperity? ([link removed])
* IEA In Conversation with Michael F. Cannon ([link removed])
* The Orange Book: 20 Years Later ([link removed])
* How are we to explain economists’ “collective failure” to forecast inflation correctly in the 2020s? ([link removed])

IEA Panel Discussion on Colonialism – the foundation of Western prosperity? ([link removed])

Join us next week for our panel discussion on Kristian Niemietz’s latest IEA publication Imperial Measurement: A Cost–Benefit Analysis of Western Colonialism ([link removed]) .

Panel:
* Dr Victoria Bateman, author of The Sex Factor: How women made the west rich.
* Dr Lawrence Goldman, former Director of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
* Dr Zareer Masani, writer and broadcaster, author of Macaulay: Britain’s Liberal Imperialist and Indian Tales of the Raj.
* Dr Kristian Niemietz, IEA Editorial Director, author of Imperial Measurement: A cost-benefit analysis of Western colonialism.

Date: Tuesday, 28th May

Time: 18:30 - 21:00

Location: 2 Lord North Street, SW1P 3LB
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RSVP ([link removed])
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RSVP (mailto:[email protected]?subject=IEA%20Healthcare%20Event&body=Hello%2C%0A%0AI%20would%20like%20to%20attend%20the%20IEA's%20'In%20Conversation...'%20event%20with%20Michael%20F.%20Cannon%20on%2010th%20June.)

IEA In Conversation with Michael F. Cannon ([link removed])

Next month, Cato Institute Director of Health Policy Studies Michael F. Cannon will join IEA Executive Director Tom Clougherty to discuss government failures and market solutions to healthcare challenges.

Date: Monday, 10th June

Time: 17:30 - 19:30

Location: 2 Lord North Street, SW1P 3LB

The Orange Book: 20 Years Later ([link removed])

20 years on from the publication of The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism, how are the Liberal Democrats balancing the competing pulls of liberalism and social democracy? Find out at our next panel event!

Panel:
* Tom Clougherty (Chair)
* Sir Vince Cable, former Liberal Democrat leader, MP, and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, and Skills.
* Baroness Kramer, Liberal Democrat Peer, former MP, and Transport Minister.
* Lord Newby, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords.
* Mark Oaten, former Liberal Democrat MP.

Date: Tuesday, 11th June

Time: 18:00 - 21:00

Location: 2 Lord North Street, SW1P 3LB
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How are we to explain economists’ “collective failure” to forecast inflation correctly in the 2020s? ([link removed])

Most monetary economists failed to see inflation on the horizon during the Covid-19 pandemic. Join us next month as we host an event with the Vinson Centre and the Institute of International Monetary Research’s Chair Tim Congdon to discuss how the Quantity Theory of Money can help policymakers learn from their mistakes.

Date: Wednesday, 12th June

Time: 17:00 - 19:00

Location: 2 Lord North Street, SW1P 3LB

The Future of British Politics: In Conversation with Simon Heffer ([link removed])

Tom Clougherty interviews author and historian Simon Heffer, IEA YouTube ([link removed])

Stay up to date… Watch our latest In Conversation event.
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IEA Latest.
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Should Bank of England cut interest rates now inflation is at 2.3%? ([link removed])

Julian Jessop, The Daily Express ([link removed]) , The Daily Telegraph ([link removed]) , Yahoo! ([link removed]) & Wealth Briefing ([link removed])

Stay on target!… The rate of inflation continued to fall, hitting 2.3% in April. While still slightly above the Bank of England’s target, that is still its slowest rate since July 2021.
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Debanked: How Regulations Are Hurting Innocent UK Bank Customers ([link removed])

Senior Research Fellow Jamie Whyte, IEA YouTube ([link removed])

Government failure… As Jamie’s new IEA research ([link removed]) shows, overzealous anti-money laundering regulations are the root cause of the UK’s debanking epidemic.
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The societal cost of alcohol has fallen by 25 per cent since 2001. Why is the Cabinet Office pretending otherwise? ([link removed])

Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon, ConservativeHome ([link removed])

Lies, damned lies, and statistics… New research claiming that alcohol harms cost England £27 billion per year paints a rather misleading picture.
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** The NHS Infected Blood Scandal Explained | IEA Podcast ([link removed])
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Communications Officer & Linda Whtstone Scholar Reem Ibrahim interviews Chief Operating Officer Andy Mayer, IEA YouTube ([link removed])

Burning injustice… Institutional failures conspired to create the contaminated blood scandal and deny justice to its victims for decades.
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The critical role of “broad money”: lessons from history ([link removed])

Institute of International Monetary Research Director Damian Pudner, IEA Blog ([link removed])

Always and everywhere… After its failure to control post-Covid inflation, the Bank of England looks set to pay more attention to the supply of ‘broad money’.
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Forget the £5bn price tag – a better border could still be a Brexit win ([link removed])

Economics Fellow Julian Jessop, City AM ([link removed])

The full picture… The National Audit Office’s estimate of post-Brexit border costs should inject urgency into improvement efforts.
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** Book review: “The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society” by Joseph Stiglitz ([link removed])
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Law & Economics Fellow Cento Veljanovski, IEA Blog ([link removed])

‘Unoriginal and unconvincing’… Stiglitz may want to brush up a bit on the work of his fellow Nobel Laureate Frederich Hayek.
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The UPF panic is a fad ([link removed])

Christopher Snowdon, The Critic ([link removed])

Shifting goalposts… Does the nutritional value of food really depend on the intentions of the person who produced it?

IEA Insider.


** 2024 Vinson Centre Conference in the Classical Liberal Tradition ([link removed])
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The Vinson Centre and the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society at King’s College London are holding a conference this Summer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of F.A. Hayek’s Nobel Prize.

Throughout the conference, students will take part in a series of lectures and seminars on the continued importance of Hayek’s work on issues like the regulation, monetary policy, and the nanny state.

Date: Wednesday, 17th July

Location: Vinson Centre, University of Buckingham
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