There are at least nine housing reviews and commissions running at the moment:
Institute for Public Policy Research
The Fabian Society
ResPublica
Oliver Letwin/Cabinet Office
RICS
The Labour Party
The Mayor of London
The London Borough of Ealing
The London Borough of Lambeth
I’m sure there are more, especially from local authorities trying to work out how to respond to the government’s changes.
It’s definitely an important time to consider where we go with housing next and what new ideas can be practically brought to bear on the intractable issues we all know about.
Many of these reviews and commission have excellent memberships from within and beyond the housing world and there will be a lot of ‘cross-fertilisation’ of ideas and approaches. The interactions between what comes out of these bodies will be interesting: I doubt the Fabians and ResPublica will agree and what difference will we see between bodies that actually have to deliver (councils, the Mayor, the Cabinet Office) and those that are just tasked with the thinking?
I doubt there are this many reviews and commissions going on in other sectors and policy areas. It does beg the question whether the housing sector as a whole really has the faintest ideas what to do and how to win over support for some actions many agree on.
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