Therefore, let this missive serve as a CLARION CALL to Rethink, Reform, and Restore! Let not our Fate be sealed by Habit and Inertia! Let us seize the Better Path — for the sake of our People, our Purse, and our Planet.
GOD SAVE ENGLAND AND HER HOMES.

With a more Artful Toolkit, we may alleviate the Sufferings of the People faster and with less Treasury spent — and unshackle our Builders to labour where they are most desperately needed.

Yet — take heart! For all is not lost. Our preliminary Inquiries uncover PROMISING ALTERNATIVES: latent Resources abound within the HOMES we already possess! Wise and well-calibrated Policy may guide the Prices and Distribution of Dwellings without need of Brick upon Brick.

They imperil our OBLIGATIONS to the CLIMATE and to all God's Creatures who dwell upon the Earth. The toils of so many Labourers shall also be drawn away from RETROFIT — that noble and necessary Work by which our present Homes may be restored to health and thriftiness —and from other great Endeavours

The conclusion is inescapable — other Forces, vast and unchecked, do drive these Prices ever upward.
What is more, this mad chase after New-Builds bears grievous Costs to our Blessed Isle’s Air and Soil! Such Endeavours spew FORBIDDEN FUMES into our Heavens and lay Waste to Fields and Forests.

Historical reckonings suggest that even had we summoned the Spirits of Industry to raise 300,000 Houses per annum from 1796 to 1817 (were it possible!), still would Prices have soared by 134 percent, a mere trifle less than the actual 151 percent.

Nor shall House Prices yield much ground. The Office of Budgetary Responsibility, in its learned Prognostications of March in the Year of our Lord 1825, foresees but a 0.8 percent abatement in Prices by 1829, despite Reforms and lavish Subsidies.

Without the Remedy of deeper Reform, this Building Blitz shall soften Rents but little — by scarce a single percentage point! Among the poorest Fifth, tenants of the Private Rented Realm are found to surrender near sixty percent of their meagre Incomes to Rent — a most intolerable tribute!

hath Albion the Manpower and Means to manifest such a Vision?
Alas! Many Learned Men and Sages of the Building Arts declare it doubtful. And should the Herculean Labour succeed, still the Problem shall not be vanquished — for what availeth many new Houses, if the rot at the core remain?

Verily, successive Ministries have proclaimed grand Designs: an unceasing torrent of MARKET-LED NEW CONSTRUCTION, with Promises of 1.5 MILLION new Homes ere the end of this Parliament. And while Investment in the Social and Affordable Sector is rightfully welcome, we must inquire —

(the broadside continued...) Such ills arise not by chance, but from a Housing Order unfit for its Sacred Purpose — namely, to furnish the People of this Realm with Decent and Affordable Homes.

Keen to find others working on this intersection of housing justice and environmental justice, please tag folk who might be interested! @jksteinberger.bsky.social @kateraworth.bsky.social @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @meadwaj.bsky.social

@stefanhorn.bsky.social‬
‪@jryancollins.bsky.social‬
@iipp-ucl.bsky.social‬
@darkmatterlabs.org‬

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