Digital lead @yimbyalliance
Manc, now in london
Joined August 2025
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Check out this video I made on an interesting way to deliver more homes in built-up areas:
James Gradel retweeted
Imagine having a package of reforms that could cut rents by £250. If I were in government, I'd be racing to implement it!
What if the best way to reduce the cost of living also turned out to be the best way to boost growth?
In a new paper for @BritishProgress, @timleunig, @robblackie & I find that the Government hitting its housebuilding targets would *reduce rents by £251 a month* in London, within 5 years.
This is a far greater saving for ordinary households than any cost of living measure announced in the Budget.
And the best part? We can do this for free. By streamlining planning restrictions, improving building safety rules and empowering residents, we could hit and exceed Labour's housing targets.
BUT as things stand, the Government's housing targets are not on track, and so households across the UK will not feel this benefit.
👀 New paper on how much rents would go down if London and other big cities hit their housing targets...
What if the best way to reduce the cost of living also turned out to be the best way to boost growth?
In a new paper for @BritishProgress, @timleunig, @robblackie & I find that the Government hitting its housebuilding targets would *reduce rents by £251 a month* in London, within 5 years.
This is a far greater saving for ordinary households than any cost of living measure announced in the Budget.
And the best part? We can do this for free. By streamlining planning restrictions, improving building safety rules and empowering residents, we could hit and exceed Labour's housing targets.
BUT as things stand, the Government's housing targets are not on track, and so households across the UK will not feel this benefit.
With the target to build 1.5 million homes looking less and less likely to be met, this piece from @KaneEmerson outlines how we can turn this around.
The answer lies in moving the focus of planning reform from large sites that are slow to deliver onto smaller-scale densification
James Gradel retweeted
Despite the Government’s high ambitions, we’re a long way from 1.5 million homes.
James Gradel retweeted
We're falling behind on the 1.5 million homes target.
See this NEW piece from @KaneEmerson on how to turn this around 🚨
James Gradel retweeted
NEW: The clock is ticking on the Government’s 1.5 million homes pledge.
Today’s Budget is a chance to change course. What would it take to get more homes?
Here’s where planning reform needs to go next. 🧵
James Gradel retweeted
Looking into the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation and we appear to be importing used cooking oil from Taliban run Afghanistan to make biodiesel.
Underratedly funny detail of this NIMBY extravaganza is that the Lidl literally would’ve been built with local stone
James Gradel retweeted
BREAKING: A landmark government report is set to reveal the vast scale of antisemitism in English schools and colleges, Sky News can exclusively reveal.
The report, written by former schools inspector Sir David Bell, will on Wednesday set out 27 recommendations to create change.
James Gradel retweeted
Israel wasn’t the only new state recognised by the United Nations in 1948. It wasn’t even the only new state that year which resulted in human displacement.
But it’s the only state western leftists debate dismantling and erasing today. For that there is a word.
“I don’t think any state has a right to exist"
Green Party leader Zack Polanski says he “supports whatever the Israelis and Palestinians need to live side by side with equal rights” when asked whether he supports a two-station solution
#BBCLauraK
bbc.co.uk/news/live/c64gv8k2…
James Gradel retweeted
"You can see the nature of a community being completely changed"
Ex-Labour MP Caroline Flint reacts to a @NickMartinSky report from a Lancashire town where landlords have been converting homes to houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in order to house more asylum seekers.
James Gradel retweeted
Obviously unwise to build without planning permission, but very silly we have a system that doesn't make it trivially easy to get permission for it, considering
a) clear need
b) it's just replacing a garage that was already there
c) the neighbour seems to have an identical one?!
A mom who spent £170k building an annexe for her disabled daughter has been ordered to demolish the structure after council officers deemed it 'unacceptable'.
Clair Birch from Worcester had the two-storey building erected but neighbours claimed it was just metres away from their homes & without - <sigh> planning permission.
After losing an appeal, she now faces having to demolish the building within six months or make drastic changes to comply with Worcester City Council's demands.
Plans for a one-bedroom annexe, which replaced an existing garage at the property, were retrospectively submitted last year which was refused & a subsequent appeal was dismissed too. 🥴
James Gradel retweeted
A must-watch video for YIMBYs!
How do we get people to say yes to more housing?
📹👇 Watch our NEW VIDEO on why one small corner of London shows that giving power to local people can actually lead to MORE homes.
James Gradel retweeted
@YIMBYalliance now trying our hand at making video content! Bravo @James_Gradel. Check it out ⤵️
James Gradel retweeted
When a block of flats in Singapore gets old, its owners can vote to sell the whole building to a developer, who rebuilds it with more homes on the same site.
🚨TODAY: A new article on how Singapore lets flat owners VOTE to build more homes.
It's called 'en bloc' 🧵
ALT Before and after aerial views of the same site in Singapore, from Google Earth. Left, labelled Before 2009: the site of an older apartment estate, shaded and outlined in green, among low-rise houses and trees. Right, labelled After 2025: seven tall, curving residential towers now stand on the same land. Headline: How Singapore lets flat owners vote to build more homes. Above it: Before and after an en bloc vote. Below, three figures: 618 flats before, 1,715 homes after, and +1,097 more homes. Imagery: Google Earth, Maxar Technologies, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Landsat / Copernicus. Sources: Business Times, 29 Jun 2007; CapitaLand, 22 Jun 2015. YIMBY Alliance logo.