Chris Walker

On Wednesday morning, the finalists for the Wolfson Economics Prize will be announced. This year’s Prize asked people to design a new garden city that is attractive, funded and locally popular. It is well recognised that we are not building enough homes. Indeed we have not been building enough homes for at least a generation.

Labour’s decision to impose rent controls will do little to solve our housing problems. Rent controls are at best misguided and at worst could be counterproductive, longer term. Misguided because rents have not actually been rising that fast in recent years. ONS figures show that rents rose by only 1 per cent in England in the