Report

Cooped up

This report from UK think tank the Adam Smith Institute quantifies the cost of housing restriction.

This paper classes the removal of restrictions as allowing owners of existing dwellings to redevelop their properties so they are up to 8 stories tall.

Our model found that liberalising these restrictions would boost the welfare of every person by 6.5% if limited to London, and 11.7% if extended to all cities; a liberalisation would correspond to annual nominal and real GDP gains respectively of 3.7% (£83bn) and 2.9% (£66bn) with conservative inputs, and 7.4% (£168bn) and 6.1% (£138.5bn) with liberal inputs.

In other words, this is how much the UK economy has been losing out on every year as a result of our planning system; It is currently costing the government £15,000 to provide infrastructure public services such as schools, GPs and utilities, to every new person who moves to a city. Our findings outline the huge gains to be made from liberalising housing restrictions.